Battle for Loroncis
by Matt Coates
Summary: Even at the height of the Final Crusade, with the Eye torn open, Chaos was not the only foe the Imperium, or the Evas, faced in battle.
1. Prologue

_…Of course, our force was not _solely_ concerned with forcing back the forces of the Despoiler. With the attention of the Imperium focused on the Black Crusade slaughtering it's way towards Terra, many of the other abominations took it into their heads (or closest equivalent) to try and snatch worlds away from the distracted High Lords, or simply attack to satisfy their lust for war._

_There was, of course, the inevitable Ork _Waargh!_ around the edges of the Arch Enemy's advance, quite probably paid off by Abaddon with slaves and guns. The pirate raid by the Chaos-tainted Eldar on the colony on Thackashi Prime, and their subsequent ambush by the _Eagles of Justice_ Astartes Chapter, re-arming and repairing after an assault on the flanks of the Chaos assault, no doubt left the few xenos survivors with many nightmares, in which the phase _'Justice has come for you!'_ no doubt features heavily._

_These incidents are, of course, well documented elsewhere, and for the most part need not concern us. There were several incidents, however, where the temporary re-direction of an Astartes company or deployment of a Imperial Guard regiment were not enough to deal with these distractions._

_At such times, our task force found itself diverted away from the front, to bring our sheer focus of power to bear on one or another distraction. Several times, it was the foul Green-skins that we had been brought to confound. But a few of these missions were focused against abominations far worse then any Ork warboss could ever hope to employ…_

From _The Weapons of the Past; An Account of the Final Crusade and the Role of the Evangelion _by Inquisitor Lord Thorne, written 027 M42


	2. Chapter 1

_The Inquisition? They can be as pleasant as Misato…and about as trustworthy as Gendo._

Asuka Soryuu

**Battle for Loroncis**

**Chapter 1**

**Yeltsin, Fenris Sector, Segmentum Obscurus **

**Forge World**

**2nd month of the Final Crusade**

Shinji gasped as he slammed to a halt, half embedded in a still-burning manufactorium. He quickly grabbed at the walls, the flames licking at the purple armour plating covering his remaining hand, the other lying in a Menial Hab-block several kilometres away, and yanked hard. Shinji fell forward, smashing face down into the street… and the Chaos Eva that had just leaped for him tore through the air over him and smashed into the building Shinji had just vacated. "Asuka, now!" Shinji shouted into the comm.

Several blocks down the street the red form of Unit 02, battered and bleeding, stumbled around a corner and raised the bulky Thunder Cannon in her arms. As the Chaos Eva tore back out of the now completely ruined manuactorium, she pulled the trigger.

The air shrieked, as if in agony as it was torn apart. Shinji clutched desperately to consciousness as the super high energy beam passed barely a few meters above his back, the shock waves forcing him deeper into the rockcrete. The Chaos Eva screamed as the super-dense plasma beam tore away half of it's chest, vaporised a full third of the remaining manuactorium ruins, smashed through an adjoining petroleum refinery and went on to carve a hundred meter deep crater in the remains of the mountain the forge city had gradually chewed into over the millennia.

"Got him," an exhausted Asuka gasped over the comm. as she dropped the Thunder Cannon and shucked off the bulky backpack-like capacitor that powered it.

"Oh," Shinji replied dreamily, the interior of the Entry Plug swimming in front of his eyes. "That's good…" The Entry Plug faded away.

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Harbinger-_class transport _Warrior's Chariot

_One Day Later_

OMNISSIAH'S PRIMARY FUSE BANK!+++ Orgenati snarled as the battered and torn form of Unit 01 rolled into the main bay of the _Warrior's Chariot_ on a massive transport platform, which was being pulled along by a pair of disgruntled Warhounds.

Thorne found it very difficult to argue. Unit 01 was in worse shape then he had ever seen; more then a quarter of it's armour was missing, exposing bruised and cut flesh that was leaving a long trail of LCL behind the trailer, and another third was so badly torn and shredded that it offered virtually no protection. The left arm and shoulder blade was missing, although a team of tech priests had located it and were organising several vehicles to bring it back to the transport. 

Unit 02 was barely any better; Asuka had managed to bring it back to the _Warrior's Chariot _under it's own power. That was about all that could be said.

Shaking his head, Thorne turned back to the enraged High Tech Magi.

"Can it be repaired?" he asked, almost too worried to bring himself to pose the question.

+++CAN IT BE REPAIRED?+++ Orgenati asked, growling something in binary. +++SHE MUST BE IN AGONY! THE POOR MACHINE SPIRIT…+++  
"I asked if it could be repaired," Thorne interrupted. Orgenati glared at him, optic sensor flickering through several shades of angry red before returning to the more normal blue.

YES+++ he finally growled, returning his attention to the _Warrior's Chariot_ as the hatch began to close. +++THE ORGANIC COMPONENTS ARE STILL MOSTLY INTACT. THE ARM CAN BE REATTACHED, AND THE CORE _IS_ INTACT. A WEEK'S WORTH OF REGENERATION SHOULD ALLOW THE DAMAGE TO HEAL. THE _WARRIOR'S CHARIOT_ ALSO HAS SEVERAL SETS OF REPLAEMENT ARMOUR SECTIONS WE WORKED UP, MORE THEN ENOUGH TO REPLACE WHAT HAS BEEN LOST. BY THE IME THE FLEASH HAS REGENERATED, WE'LL ALSO HAVE REPAIRED THE PHYSICAL DAMAGE. HOPEFULLY WE WILL HAVE PLACATED THE WAR MACHINES ABUSED MAHINE SPIRIT; IT MUST BE RAGING IN ANGER+++

"I understand," Thorne said, breathing a carefully disguised sigh of relief. "Remember, we won this one. And we've taken out five of the toughest abominations we've seen yet. If our intel. is right, then there can only be three or four remaining."

+++I DOUBT THE MACHINE SPIRITS WILL FIND THAT MUCH CONSOLATION+++ Orgenati muttered, before shrugging with both arms and mechendrites. +++AS THE LORD OF KNOWLEDGE WILLS I SUPPOSE. BY THE WAY, HOW LONG UNTIL WE LIFT FOR ORBIT?+++

"A day, more or less. We're heading towards the Dorn nebula to rendezvous with the _Devine Right_ and the remnants of Battlefleet Gothic. After that… I suppose that that is up to Segmentum Command. Assuming it's still there."

Orgenati didn't even flinch at the blatant heresy; since Cadia died in the fires of the Planet Killer's main weapon things that seemed impossible a few months ago were disturbingly more likely every day.

Thorne stared at the slowly moving procession, before stepping back from the rail around the observation platform.

"Come on," he said, "we've both got a lot of work to do before we lift."

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Energy flared as the ancient _Harbinger-_class transport struggled back into orbit, rejoining the battered pair of space-black cruisers that were the infamous emissaries of the Inquisition. Accompanied by a pair of system defence ships, the trio drifted out on a eight hour trip to the system's jump point.

Finally, they drifted to a slow halt. The system defence ships peeled off, with the traditional 'good hunting' transmission, as the interstellar crafts' Warp engines began drawing on the immense energies needed to breach reality.

In a flicker of unearthly light, the trio of ships vanished into the Immaterium.

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Captain Artemis sighed happily and reclined back in his throne as the bridge's illuminators flipped from day to night settings. In theory, he was the master of the ship, Lord over all and everyone within. In actual fact, it was only during the time in the Warp, like now, or deep space transits to and from system jump points when he could really be a Captain. The rest of the time he had to jump to the tune of Adaptus Mechanicus, the Inquisition, the adepts of the Administratum, and several more besides as the _Warrior's Chariot_ desperately struggled through fields of weapon fire and dodged ground batteries in near-futile landing manoeuvres.

There was a dull clang as the bridge's main hatch swung open. Artemis spun in his seat to see the Inquisitor's pet Astropath Carnarmire stride into the room.

"You have to order the Navigator to hold position," the psyker said, focusing his bandage covered eye sockets on Artemis's face.

"What?" Artemis snarled, before forcing the anger at the Astropath back down. Shouting at any member of the Inquisition, even one as freaky and unreliable as a psyker, was a wonderfully quick method of committing suicide.

"I have received a distress message from the world of Loroncis," Carnarmire replied, holding out a dataslate. "The wording is extremely worrying, and Inquisitor Lord Thorne may wish us to divert there. Since the Dorn nebula is in the opposite direction, it would be prudent to hold position until a decision is made, one way or another.

Artemis took the pad and scanned the terse message displayed.

"Frag," he muttered, before tapping a command into the throne's controls. "Navigator Grume? Sorry to interrupt, but we have something of a situation…"

To be continued…

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**Menial; **A worker underclass within the Adaptus Mechanicus. If there is something too menial or dull for a Tech Priest to do and too complex for a servitor, then it is a fair assumption that the job will be done by a Menial. Officially, they are not slaves, but there is little to support this claim. The brighter ones tend to become the main source for new Tech Priests.

**Thunder Cannon;** Normally a Titan-killer weapon of incredible power, the Thunder Cannon fires a high-intensity laser/plasma beam. The version utilised by Unit 02 is similar to the Titan mounted version, but with Eva-scale hand grips and cabling linked to a high-capacity capacitor fashioned to slowly recharge from Unit 02's S2 organ.

**Rockcrete;** a more modern and tougher version of concrete.

**Warhound;** a scout Titan. Smaller then the Eva sized Warlords, the Warhound stands only 10 stories tall. Often fashioned somewhat similarly to a two legged dog, the Warhound usually mounts two weapons designed to deal with infantry and tanks rather then other Titans.

**System Defence Monitors; **small escort-scale ships. Most systems either build or import small numbers of these to monitor traffic and see off pilots. Although well armed for their size, to a real invasion they usually from little more then a road bump to any serious attempt at invasion.


	3. Chapter 2

Well, I'm back with a new story. As several people noticed, Reborn Warriors and Final Crusade didn't really involve the 'disorder' non-human races very much. Hence, I decided that a side-story or two to remedy that would be a good idea.

**Jumper Prime;** I'm glad that you enjoyed Final Crusade. Given that I don't seem capable of leaving the story line alone, I'll probably wrap up one or two of the hanging plotlines up at a later date. As for what the Emperor is looking for, all I will say is to check the Horus Heresy art book.

**Yoshomo;** Thanks! I was trying to go for an ending that fitted in both Warhammer 40,000 and Neon Genesis Evangelion. If it wouldn't have stolen my sanity, I would have enjoyed seeing the Chaos Powers' faces as they were 'bearded in their own den'. As for what happens after Final Crusade… I may do that after I finish this story.

**PuppySlayer;** Thanks; I really wanted to make a fic that fans of both series could understand (one of the reasons behind the descriptions at the end of each chapter).

**Metallix6;** If there's one constant, complaint isn't the right word, lets say comment, it's that I was focussing mostly on the Imperium and Chaos forces. This is the first of the stories I intend to use to fix this. No Necrons this time, I'm afraid, but probably in the next one.

**diabloelmo;** As Sephrocks2000 says, this is essentially a side story during Final Crusade.

**Sephrocks2000;** As I said to Metallix6, there won't be any Necrons here. I'll need to think up a way they can fit (even a dozen Monoliths couldn't bring down a single Gargant in the Ciaphas Cain story _Caves of Ice_, and the Evas are much more dangerous then the Ork war machines). Like I said, probably the next story.

**imperial guardsmen;** Technically, it's the _14__th_ Dark Crusade, but who's counting? Regardless, I'm glad your enjoying it so far, and I promise to not take too many liberties with Games Workshops universe. Probably.

**nick2951;** I'm glad you like it. The first chapter is mostly to set the background and establish the timeframe (i.e. after the destruction of Cadia, but before the Chaos armarda gets too close to the Segmentum Solar). Later chapters will probably be longer.

**Galebread;** Ah, a new reader! I first urge you to read Reborn Warriors and Final Crusade (both on my profile) to help you understand the background of this story, hopefully making it more enjoyable. As for Shinji and Asuka… At present they are working with the Inquisition Aside from a short span in _Dawn of War_ (the original) the Inquisition hasn't shown up much. Essentially, they are an organization set apart from the main bodies of the Imperium, intended to watch for threats to the Imperium from inside and out. They are charged to protect the Imperium at all costs (and if this involves torture or destroying entire planets, so be it) and have the authority to order any member of the Imperium below the High Lords to obey them. You can probably piece together a better idea from Final Crusade. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I am aware that the Black Ships of the Inquisition have names blatantly taken from Larry Niven's _Ringworld_ series and the _Halo Babies_ webcomic. Honestly, though, are there better names for the Psyker transports and interrogation ships of the Inquisition?

I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Warhammer 40,000, and hence I am making f-all from this story. As always, comments and criticism is welcomed, flamers get attached to the Valhallan 597 to act as Commissar Cain's meatshi… bodyguard.

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_I thought I was dead. Then, when I saw what had saved me, I didn't feel much safer._

Trooper Jorik, Bar-El PDF

**Chapter 2**

Thorne waited half-patiently through the half-controlled chaos and jockeying for position that normally preluded a full meeting on the _Warrior's Chariot_. Administratum adapts suitably fought with Tech priests for the best seats.

He glanced sideways at a very irate Asuka, who was glaring at the subtle infighting with barely concealed annoyance. Thorne was interested to note that she was muttering to herself, and boosted his aural implants subtlety.

"Nerv may not have been pleasant to work for," she was growling to herself, "but at least they didn't take twenty minutes to organise a damn meeting."

It took several minutes, but the room finally began to quieten. As the last two adepts finally took their seats, Thorne stood, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

"Thank you," he said. In the sudden, almost unnatural silence Thorne began to tap at the holo-projector controls. "Two hours ago, we received an Astropathic message from a cruiser in the Loroncis system." The holo-projector sprung into life, projecting a shaky, fuzzy image on the wall of the room.

Date: 4 927 998 M41

Author: Captain Hawthorne

Recipita… Oh, to the warp with this crap.

Mayday, Mayday! To all Imperium vessels within range!

This is the _Forthright Gaze._

During a routine patrol at the edge of the Loroncis system, we came under surprise attack from a ship in the Light Cruiser size range. Despite our intense sensor watch, the intruder displayed no power signatures or metallic construction, and hence did not show up on our sensors until it was clear within plasma batteries range.

We successfully engaged and destroyed the ship, and an analysis of the remains indicated that it was a Tyranid bioship.

I immediately ordered the Astropath to study the Warp, and he reports that the edge of the Shadow in the Warp is barely minutes away. We nee

"And that is where the message ends," Thorne said flatly.

"Not to dismiss this, but is this our problem?" an Administratum adept asked, after a long pause. "After all, we _are_ fighting the largest Chaos attack in the history of the Imperium, and the forwards edges of the attack are approaching the edges of the Segmentum Solar worryingly quickly."

"Adept… Farvarth has a point," Thorne admitted, "but the situation is not so simple. The records of the Loroncis system reveal some disturbing facts. For starters, the system is nearly unique in having five terra-compatible planets, all of which are extremely productive agri-worlds. The food supplies for nearly three quarters of the sector come from Loroncis, and since it lies outside the axis that Abaddon is advancing along we were anticipating that it would still be here after the bulk of the Chaos armada left the area.

"Even disregarding the usefulness of the system, if we simply ignore the hive fleet, it will be able to swell its numbers by five entire biospheres in one stroke. Emperor alone knows how dangerous _that_ would be."

INQUISITOR LORD THORNE RASIES A GOOD POINT+++ Orgenati agreed. +++THERE IS LITTLE POINT IN TURNING BACK THE ARCH ENEMY IF WE ALLOW XENOS RACES TO TEAR APART THE IMPERIUM UNOPPOSED. BESIDES, THE ADAPTUS MECHANICUS OWES THE GREAT DEVOURER FOR THE DEVASTATION RENDERED UPON GRYPHONEE IV, ONE OF OUR OLDEST AND MOST BELOVED FORGE WORLDS. DESTROYING THIS HIVE FLEET WOULD BE A GOOD… DOWN PAYMENT+++

"Indeed," Thorne said, nodding politely. "Regardless of personal feelings, I believe that the destruction of these agri-worlds would prove detrimental to the future of the Imperium. Hence I've ordered the _Warrior's Chariot_ and our escorts to re-deploy to the Loroncis system. Astropath Carnarmire tells me that he's plotted the Shadow in the Warp, and from its size he believes that we should reach the planet in a week, a couple of days before the main Hive fleet arrives. I want everyone to prepare for combat with the Tyranid; we'll be circling fact-scrolls with the relevant data within the day. Dismissed."

As the assembly began to scatter, Thorne held Asuka back with a gesture.

"I know you and pilot Ikari haven't been briefed about or encountered Tyranids, or indeed, any xenos race aside from the Orks back on Rotweld three weeks back. Here." Thorne handed her a large leather-bound book. "This is a copy of the _Codex Tyranid_; the summation of all our present knowledge about the foul race. I suggest you two study it closely."

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_Apothecarian,_ Warrior's Chariot

"Well," the Apothecary said, stepping back from the bed, "Your ready to go back to duty. I would take it carefully for the next few hour though; sympathetic wounding is nothing to take lightly."

Shinji sung his legs off the bed and winced as pins and needles raced up them. When Asuka had fired over his-over _Unit 01's_-back the energy release had literally roasted the top meter of the exposed Angel flesh. For the first few hours after Shinji had regained consciousness his legs felt as though they had been torn at with dozens of knives despite the lack of any wounds.

And that had been just _one_ of the sources of pain from the battle. The few bruises from being thrown around in the Entry Plug were nothing in comparison. The only part of him that didn't hurt was his left forearm, and that was only because it had been replaced with an augmentic replacement several months ago (or ten thousand years depending on your perspective). And drugs didn't seem to help at all.

_"The problem is," the Apothecary had explained, "that the 'pain' is really an imbalance in the humours of the mind imposed by the Mind Impulse link with your Evangelion. The pain you think you feel is literally 'in your mind'. Painkillers won't help because the pain nerves aren't hurting; deadening them won't help. You can recover while being unconscious, but without the conscious mind the subconscious has problems with coming to terms with the fact that you're uninjured. Recovery would be five to six times as long as in you were awake. I'm afraid that you'll actually recover better awake."_

"You probably should check in with the Inquisitor Lord or his staff as soon as possible," the Apothecary was saying, drawing Shinji back to the present. "I do know that there was some kind of important meeting earlier; though _I_ certainly wouldn't know anything about it."

"Thank you," Shinji said carefully coming to his feet.

"Your uniform's in there," the Apothecary said as he left, indicating a metal cupboard with a mechendrite consisting of a cluster of surgical blades and drug injectors. As the door slid closed, Shinji stumbled his way over to the cupboard, silently cursing the illusionary pain in his legs, and pulled the door open.

The new Evangelion Uniform was actually fairly simple; a set of standard Imperial Guard fatigues (sans armour) in the same cream and brown of Nerv uniforms. Instead of the normal unit patch, however, the shoulder proudly displayed the skull-and-I symbol of the Inquisition superimposed over the ancient leaf used by Nerv. The quote 'God is in his heaven. All's right with the world,' however had been replaced by 'Imperator in Terra est, et Imperium sustinebit' (literally 'The Emperor is on Earth and the Imperium will endure'). Despite overheard moans about the 'two sizes' of Imperial uniforms (too small and too large) this uniform seeded to fit Shinji perfectly.

There was a knocking on the door as Shinji pulled on the jacket.

"One second, Asuka" he called out as he buttoned up the jacket. Ever since Terra, when he and Asuka had both finally emerged from their Evas after 28,000 years, each of them always knew where the other was. It wasn't a psychic or emotional thing, or at least, Shinji didn't _think_ it was, more the shared experience from the final battle at Nerv, and being pulled into their respective Evas.

Opening the door, Shinji was surprised to see that Asuka looked slightly nervous.

"Come on," she said grabbing his had and pulling him out into the corridor, "I think you've rested more then long enough." Shinji smirked. A long time ago, Asuka would have intended those words as a sharp barb, and Shinji would have sagged with a stab of guilt and shame. 38,000 years tends to change things though, and Asuka's tone made it clear that she was just bantering.

"Surely you would have been more then capable of covering for me?" Shinji asked in an overly shocked voice.

"Hah!" she snorted. "If you think that I'll spend _twice_ as long in that red gloop taking all of your synch tests _as well_ as my own, you've got another thing coming. Though I probably _would_ do them better…"

"Oh?" Shinji asked as they left the Apothecarian complex for the hab-sector "And which of us has the higher average synch-ratio?"

"Like that matters with the MIUs," Asuka replied slightly less cheerfully.

"Yeah…" Shinji winced in agreement, subconsciously rubbing the cold metal implant embedded within the back of his neck; just one more symbol of how far they had come.

They walked in quiet silence for a minute or two, before reaching their shared room. Asuka ran her finger down the gene-scanner, which whined for a few seconds before the hatch hissed open.

When the two of them had been assigned to the same room, Asuka had, of course, been furious. It hadn't been as bad as she thought though; the room had originally been intended to house six ensigns of the Navy. There were three bunk-beds, each of which had a privacy screen for the occupants, a small work table and an attached toilet. Compared to the side-by-side sleeping bags used in Misarto's synchronisation training, it was practically a paradise (for a given value of paradise).

Asuka pulled aside the privacy screen on one of the lower bunks and sat down

"Come on, Shinji," Asuka said, the nervousness returning, "you need to have a look at this."

"What is it?" he asked, glancing at the book she was brandishing.

It's called the 'Tyranid Codex'. I've already had a flip through it." Asuka smirked mirthlessly. "It's not pleasant reading."

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_Loroncis, Fenris Sector, Segmentum Obscurus _

_Warp Jump Point 3_

_7 days later_

On the edge of the system, the thin skin of reality pealed back, opening a window into madness. In a flare of energy and rapidly evaporating daemonic energies, a trio of ships fled back into a sane world, the wound in space healing itself behind them.

Several minutes passed, while sensors reset, work gang slaves pulled guns into place and overloaded geraniums cycled back to normal operations.

Then plasma engines flared into life, beginning the journey into the system.

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In the deep darkness of space, a predator turned its attention to a glare of heat and light. Senses that were the product of decades of directed evolution focused on the intruder into their realm.

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"All decks report standard readiness, sir," a rating said, looking up from a inter-deck vox console."

"Very good," Captain Artemis said, pleased at the efficiency of his crew. The side effects of a normal Warp jump took up to ten to twenty minutes to compensate for. A mere eight minutes was a sign of a very well trained crew. "Navigation, set course for Loroncis VI, the capital."

"Aye sir," the helmsman replied. He tapped a few keys, frowning in concentration, before looking up. "Helm, come to heading 143 by 0.4 degrees ascension. Then go to All Ahead Full."

"One hundred and forty three degrees by point four ascension, aye."

Artemis leaned back in his chair happily.

"Captain."

Artemis silently cursed himself for relaxing.

"Yes, my lord Inquisitor?" he asked, turning.

"I would like a signal sent to Loroncis VI," Inquisitor Thorne asked, watching the jury-rigged tactical screen mounted on the far wall.

"I'm afraid that Astropathic communications is unavailable; the Shadow in the Warp has blanked out all long-range communication," Artemis replied apologetically.

"_Astropathic_ communication, yes. The ship's main Vox does have the range though, and is unaffected by the Shadow.

"My, Lord," Artemis replied, quietly seething, "the Vox is limited by the speed of light; by the time we receive any reply, we'll be only a couple of hours from orbit. And the power requirements of transmitting over such a distance…"

"Regardless," Thorne replied, "I insist that the request is sent." Thorne hesitated for a second, and when he continued it was at a lower volume intended for Artemis only. "I know it must be frustrating to have to suffer under what may seem like the capacious whims of your passengers, but I must have as much information as possible before we reach orbit. Besides, I suspect you would discover that, say, a Genestealer cult has overtaken the planetary defences _before_ they gut your ship."

Artemis closed his eyes and sighed mentally

"As the Emperor wills," he muttered.

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In the darkness, the predator watched. Three prey-vessels had entered the hunting ground. Two were the brittle warrior-craft of the kind that bled so many younglings into the darkness. One though… One was a hive-carrier.

Full of prey.

Defenceless.

The predator _moved_.

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"Sir!"

Artemis snapped his head up at the vox-officer's shout. Ever since the Vox message had been sent and Thorne had left the bridge, the trip in-system had been as dull and peaceful as such trips almost always were.

"Report," he shouted across the bridge.

"The _Calm and Cooperative_ reports two bio-contacts at long range, coming in from opposing bearings. The _Calm and Cooperative_ and the _Hot Needle of Enquiry_ are moving to intercept."

"Understood. Tell them to hurry back." Artemis stared worriedly at the plot as the two cruisers peeled off.

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The predator watched as the two warrior-craft pulled away from the hive-carrier, moving towards the two bio-constructs known to the galaxy as Kraken.

The bait had been taken. The predator lunged.

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Artemis discovered that he was nervously tapping the armrest of his command-throne, and forcibly grabbed the ork skull head that protruded from the end (taken during a boarding action).

_We'll be fine_, he silently castrated himself. _The Black Ships picked up those two at long range, and they've been running 360 degree scans ever since we arrived. If there had been any other bio-ships then surely…_

'_Despite our intense sensor watch, the intruder displayed no power signatures or metallic construction, and hence did not show up on our sensors until it was clear within plasma batteries range.'_

"Void Shields up to full! Do it…" Artemis began to shout. He never finished his sentence as the _Warrior's Chariot_ was flung sideways under the first barrage of close-range bio-plasma.

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UNIT 01'S STATUS?+++ Orgenati asked, glancing up at one of the other Tech-priests scattered around the viewing chamber.

ALL SYSTEM'S REPORT READY+++ came the reply +++THE REGENERATION IS COMPLETE, ALL ARMOR PLATING HAS BEEN PROPERLY INCORPERATED AND BLESSED+++

Orgenati nodded, pleased, and returned his attention to the Titan storage chamber on the far side of the armor-plex. It was a heady sight; fully eight Warlord Titans, an entire squad, and both of the Evangelions stood in immense clamps while servitors and tech-priest swarmed over them, ensuring ammunition was loaded and servos were blessed and oiled, while Princeps completed final readiness checks and prayers. There was no better demonstration of the Ohmnisah's will.

Orgenati was thrown to the floor as the world lurched sideways. The air filled with screams and the toil of the emergency bells.

GET ME A VOX-LINE TO THE BRIDGE, NOW! FIND OUT WHAT'S GOING ON+++ he shouted, climbing back to his feet. He looked around in shock; the previous bustle of loyal maintenance work and worship had vanished, half of the rooms console seemed to have burned out from feedback and tech-priests were scattered over the room.

---INTERNAL VOX UNAVALIBLE AT THE PRESENT TIME--- a servitor dully stated, half hanging from the wall where it had been half torn from its mountings. Cursing in complex machine code, Orgenati pushed a broken body away from the nearest console and stabbed a mechendrites into it's access terminal. Leaving a trail of apologies and rapid prayers behind him, he dived his mind into the core of the _Warrior's Chariot_'s machine spirit.

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The reports came thick and fast.

"Contact! _Contact!_ Oh, Emperorsundyingmercy! Bio-ship! Right on top of us! 4,000 kilometres at 83 degrees ascension!"

"We've lost two of our Voids! Shield strength to one-third!"

"Decompression on decks three and seven, and the upper spinal promenade is open to space!"

"Helm," Artemis shouted over the din, "bring us up to 83 degrees ascension, get our thicker forward armour between us and it! Vox officer, emergency signal to the _Calm and Cooperative_ and the _Hot Needle of Enquiry_! Get them back here now!"

"Sir, she's not answering the helm," the Navigation officer shouted back. "Something's overriding the controls and causing us to roll to starboard!"

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Orgenati pulled himself loose of the angry machine spirit and brought his implanted Vox on-line.

ALL TITAN CREWS AND EVA PILOTS, SEAL AND PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE VACUUM COMBAT. ALL OTHER PERSONNEL TO EVACUATE PORT TITAN HANGER ONE, NOW. YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS+++ He killed the Vox and turned his attention back to his own body. +++PREPARE TO BLOW THE PORT ACCESS HATCH+++

MY LORD+++ one of the Tech-priest argued, even as he began to hurriedly tap his console's interface-icons+++DOZENS OF OUR PEOPLE ARE STILL IN THERE!+++

WE HAVE NO CHOICE+++ Orgenati replied grimly. +++RELEASE THE TITAN RESTRAINTS AND BLOW THE HATCH… NOW!+++

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Even as the _Warrior's Chariot_ came to bare her port flank to the single bio-ship, a second wave of bio-plasma swept in from the Kraken. Void shields strained to the breaking point, flared and then collapsed. They had absorbed massive amounts of energy and only a tiny amount of the energy hit the _Warrior's Chariot_. It was still almost too much.

Armour plating shattered. Drive systems burned. Air bled into space. People died. The ship's spinal construct super heated, nearly to melting point. As it began to bend under the ship's acceleration, compartments collapsed, crushing their inhabitants between bulkheads.

As the damage began to settle, a second shock shook the ship as an immense hatch on the port flank blew clear with the flash of emergency charges. A blast of air, tools, unsecured equipment, servitors and Tech-priests who had been too slow (several of whom grabbed the edges of the hatch and managed to survive until a rescue crew found them) blasted from the ship. As the debris cleared, eight Titans and a pair of Evangelions, both of whom were clutching modified Thunder Cannons, came into view.

OPEN FIRE!+++ Orgenati ordered over the Vox. channels.

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It is commonly known that the more powerful Titan weapons are actually powerful enough to be a danger to orbiting starships. This danger tends to be ignored; such weapons have a limited range compared to the immense distances involved in space combat. The only incidents where a Titan has successfully shot down a starship usually involve escorts, transports and the occasional light cruiser that were either landing, or had come dangerously low in the planets' gravity wells.

Normally, a Titan would be completely useless in a space battle. The Kraken was, however, at point-blank range for space combat, which translated into the upper edge of medium range for the ground-based Titans.

Incredibly powerful beams of energy, slightly weaker then the bio-plasma, but much more intensely focused, speared out from the side of the _Warrior's Chariot_. Psykers throughout the vessel, and the two Black ships now racing back towards the transport from the bleeding ruins of their own targets, winced as a scream emanated from the wounded beast.

Even as the Tyranid ship struggled to bring itself back under control, a second barrage fired from the faster cycling Imperial weapons speared into and through the monster's brain.

The corpse began to fall behind as the battered _Warrior's Chariot_ came back to its original heading.

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"…and damage control gangs claim that they can have the last of the leaks from the more stable sections sealed within the hour." Artemis nodded as the ensign turned back to his console and sighed.

_Too close. Too damn close…_ he mused silently. The _Warrior's Chariot_ had come as close to destruction as it had ever come in its history. _If it hadn't been for that damn Cog-boy __Orgenati…_

"Sir," the Vox officer said, interrupting Artemis' train of thought, "We've just received a message from Loroncis VI. It's a little garbled by distance, but it's been repeated several times, so there's no information loss. There's a tactical download, and… a warning."

"Well," Artemis asked after several seconds. "What's the warning?" The Vox officer let out an ironic chuckle.

"They're warning us that there are several bio-ships running ahead of the main hive fleet active in the system."

To be continued…

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**Tyranid;** Quite possibly the most dangerous race in the galaxy, the Tyranid are actually nomadic creatures from another galaxy. They do not fight wars, claim territory, negotiate for power or follow the words of any god. They simply exist to devour all life in the galaxy. The Tyranid are a composite race bound by a psychic Hive Mind, made up of thousands of sub-species ranging from the smallest Ripper to the immense bio-titans or even the kilometre-long bio-cruisers, all churned out by the bio-vats within the Hive ships (he closest thing the Tyranids have to a leader).

If the Tyranid are one thing, they are evolution personified, achieving in a few hours biological changes that would take years to happen in other races. The Tyranid attack on mass, as an immense wave of creatures stretching from horizon to horizon incorporating the most fearsome biological monstrosities in the universe. This method of feeding drains the bio-vats dry, and the Tyranid focus on only one thing; consuming the DNA needed to replace that which was used. Any planet taken by the Tyranid is left a barren wasteland; the life, air, water and even a noticeable fraction of the planet's rocky mantle is feed to the Hive Ships' immense appetite.

The Imperium is all to often forced into a scorched earth policy; to wait until the Hive fleets have expanded the maximum amount of bio-mass, and then to perform and Exterminatus; destroying the planet's eco-system themselves and rendering it useless to the Tyranid. Even with horrific tactics like this, the immense fleets of the Navy, forces of the Imperial Guard and might of the Astartes, nay-sayers claim that if every bullet, shell and energy cell stored by the entire Imperium was used against the Tyranid, half of the Hive fleets in the galaxy would still remain afterwards. This is a radically optimistic belief.

**Genestealers;** Genestealers are one of the more insidious sub-species of Tyranid. Fast, dangerous, capable of tearing even Terminator armour apart with their claws and with a brood telepathy granting them a degree of separation from the Hive mind, they make dangerous shock troops. Much more dangerous, however, is their infiltration capabilities. Infiltrating ahead of the Hive fleets,

Genestealers hide within population centres, choosing victims to implant their gene-spoor within. This gene-spore slowly alters the genetics and mentality of the victims, who usually remain unaware of their infection. Offspring of these implanted individuals are Genestealer hybrids, attached to the Genestealer Brood mind from conception and often showing signs of their heritage (chitin plates, claws, four arms, etc…) and despite the obvious mutation the parents always sees the offspring as a perfect creature. As the hybrids breed, the obvious mutations fade with each generation as the human DNA gains dominance, and the more normal-looking hybrids tend to manoeuvre themselves into positions of power. In an odd twist, the last generation of hybrids are in fact pure-strain Genestealers. As the Genestealer cult grows in size, they begin to emit a psychic call, summoning the nearest Hive fleet to feed.

The presence of a large Genestealer cult is one of the most certain signs on an impending Tyranid Invasion, and often reduces the local Imperial presence to chaos before the Hive fleet even arrives.

**The Shadow in the Warp;** A side effect of the Tyranid hive mind. No one is sure what it is, a side effect of the Tyranid's psychic hive mind, some kind of mental communication with other hive fleets, or simply some alien side effect of the Tyranid equivalent of Warp travel. Regardless, the effect of the Shadow is simple; all Astropathic communication into, out of and through the region covered by the Shadow is impossible. Shorter range Psyker talents, however, seem to be unaffected.

**Kraken;** A rogue form of bio-ship. Approximately escort sized (hence, several hundred meters long) Kraken are one of the few bio-ships independent of the Hive Mind. Hence, they are often found harassing convoys and scouting out planets sometimes several sectors away from any known Hive fleet. It is believed that the infamous Kraken of the seas of Fenris (homeworld of the Adaptus Astartes Space Wolves) are a de-evolved form of the bio-ships capable now of only swimming the icy seas of that deadly planet. How the Kraken were able to arrive there over 9,750 years prior (since Kraken have been recorded on Fenris from before the Imperium's ten thousand long history) to the recorded arrival of the first Hive fleet, Behemoth, only 250 years ago is a matter of much discussion within the Adaptus Astartes and the Ordos Xenos of the Inquisition.

**Cog-boy;** The most common nickname for the adepts of the Adaptus Mechanicus used by the various other bodies of the Imperium, referring to the gear used as the Adaptus.


	4. Chapter 3

Well, not too much to say. Here is the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it.

**Galebread;** I'm glad you enjoyed the previous chapter. I've been trying to make my writing smoother, but I'm never completely sure how successful I was (especially whenever I look back at a chapter I've written a few months ago). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. And yes, Jorik is the same sniper who was nearly blasted by a tank back in Final Crusade. Some people had been asking whether he survived that day or not.

**nick2951;** Thanks, one of the reasons I've been writing this story is to try and improve my writing. At some point, I intend to go back to Final Crusade and edit it a bit to make it flow a bit smoother as well.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be sent to the promethium mines to support the Imperium's war effort.

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_Dem fast-movin' 'Perial 'Gel-ions' are no match for mah Gargent's big Gunz!_

Last words of Ork War-boss, 'Big-un' Rotsnig

**Chapter 2**

Inquisitor Lord Thorne idly hummed _'The Tracks on the Land Raider'_ as he watched the Tech-priests, both local and from Rorgatein IV (the Forge world Orgenati and his people had originated from) swarm around the grounded bulk of the _Warrior's Chariot_.

It had been a harrowing landing. Not only had the ship's super-structure been badly weakened, but the missing hatch had left a large gaping hole in the _Warrior's_ _Chariot_'s flanks. One of the Void shields had been dismounted and sent to the compromised Titan bay to seal off the broken hatch. It had been a hasty patch-job, and the Void shield had shorted out during the landing. Fortunately, they had already reached the lower atmosphere and slowed to landing speed, and the bay had been abandoned. Aside from some scorch marks on the decking and the Titans closest to the gaping hatch, there had been no noticeable damage.

In spite of that, frantic repair efforts had been going on for the last few hours. As soon as the Titans had been unloaded, as well as the stored STC-based equipment and pre-assembled buildings necessary to construct a field Titan depot, the _Warrior's Chariot_ was going to be lifted off and shifted safely out of the system beyond the cometary halo. Unarmed and damaged, the aging transport had no business being on the front-lines, or indeed, anywhere near the Tyranid invasion force.

"Inquisitor?" Thorne turned to discover that the question had come from one of the multitude of Skitarii Tech Guard who had been accompanying the Adaptus Mechanicus force to support the vast war machines.

"What is it Trooper?" he asked, instinctively riding the shock waves as a Warhound strode from the door-less hatch, casually stepping over the hard-working Tech-priests, and started for the edge of the spaceport.

"There's a group of local Arbites at the edge of the restricted zone we've established. They say that they are here to liaisons with the Mechanicus forces."

"Send them to the Apothecarian and get a medicae to do a gene scan," Thorne said after a moments thought. "Then send them to the quartermaster to assign them some quarters. I'll meet them properly once the base is set up."

"Yes, my Lord." As the Tech Guard ran back towards the edge of the space port, Thorne turned back towards the ship as the first of the super-heavy transports, loaded up with another load of pre-fab structures, began to trundle out of a secondary hatchway.

_I was planning on heading back to my suite to get started on the rest of the paperwork…_ Thorne mused distastefully. _No, better to head over to the site for the field base; the main pre-fab buildings should be set up by now. And I hardly ever get the chance to enjoy sun and fresh air._ A quick vox call to his (human) secretary and he managed to get the less sensitive reports downloaded to his slate via the local datanet and have a staff car sent to his location.

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_Field Titan Depot_

Thorne was deeply engrossed in a Navel report (one of the last to be received before they crossed into the Shadow) when the car pulled up to one of the four entrances to the rapidly growing Mechanicus base.

The Hive fleet was estimated to still be anywhere from a couple of days to a week away, but Thorne had no intention of letting anyone forget that they were essentially in enemy territory; one of the warnings from 'Sky Command', the local name for the orbiting centre of Loroncis' orbital defences, had indicated that it was believed, although unconfirmed, that there were multiple Genestealer Cults spread over the five Agri-worlds.

Hence, on Thorne's orders, each of the three personnel gates were guarded by a Tech Guard and several hidden, arcane defences, while the main Titan entrance was covered by an entire squad, several squads were patrolling the unfilled gaps in the external fortifications, and a couple of squads of tracked, heavy-combat servitors were kept constantly ready to respond to any attack.

Thorne carefully stored the file and shut down the slate while the sentry carefully checked his authorisation, and glanced out at the compound as they drove in through the gates. So far during their deployment, they had been rushing in and out of battles; where they hadn't been fighting, they had been traversing the Warp. The various components of the field base had been loaded up months ago, before the _Warrior's Chariot_ had even left Rorgatein IV for Nemisis Tessara, and until now, had never been used.

Thorne had been mildly curious as to just what a temporary Titan Depot looked like. He rapidly concluded that the depot, despite being a mere shadow of the majesty of the main Titan Depots scattered on Forge worlds or vital defensive lynch-pin planets throughout the Imperium, was a impressive set up.

The centre of the compound consisted of a cluster of pre-fab domes forming hab-blocks, storage, power stations and the various other facilities required to maintain and operate the base, intermingled with immense, portable, multi-purpose maufactoriums capable of constructing anything from spare parts to replacement ammunition and large enough for a Warlord to actually enter any of the massive structures with ease.

Around this central cluster was a large empty expanse, broken by several rapidly assembled gantries and the immense forms of the titans that had already been unloaded. Finally, surrounding this 'pen' was a ring of fortifications and weapon batteries, including an unusually large number of anti-air Hydra batteries.

It was also, Thorne noted as the staff car approached the command facility, noticeably a Mechanicus facility rather then a Guard-style military base. It wasn't the ever-present cog-and-skull symbol of the Adeptus, although it did cover every exposed surface aside from the hastily set-up shrine that a grumpy Orgenati had agreed to have built. It was the fact that every component of the base gave the impression of being a priceless relic.

Most temporary Imperial military facilities, whether Guard, Astartes, Inquisition, or any of the other organizations that maintained a legal (or occasionally illegal but officially overlooked) fighting force tended towards plain, metal-reinforced rockcrete structures, usually based on recovered STC fragments. They were simple, plain, often unpainted and usually capable of taking several rounds of ordinance without breaking.

The depot's structures, to be fair, were made of the same basic, durable materials. They had, however, been coated with incredibly intricate artistic designs made from various valuable metals and gems. Thorne had no doubt that the intricate engravings wouldn't last the first battle, despite the likelihood that the defences had hidden arcane shielding to protect them, wasting the hundreds of credits and work-hours that had been used to engrave the decorative symbolism.

Still, despite the unnecessary ornamentation the depot was well designed and once complete, would be able to prevent any mynotic spores from hitting the base or the nearby city while holding off the Tyranid ground forces for a decent time.

_Ah_, Thorne thought as the vibration of the car's grav-lifts faded and the car landed next to a jet-black Rhino with a turreted water cannon, _time to meet the locals_.

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_Gate 3_

Trooper Biot fought back a yawn as his chronometer clicked over another hour. Unlike the other gates, gate 3 faced the city, which was barely a hundred meters from the edge of the walls. Aside from the convoys of local supplies, mostly consisting of food and water, and a single Arbites Rhino there had been nothing interesting at all. Sentry duty tended to be dull as ditch-water, and yet was one of the most vital duties any guardsmen could be assigned to. Especially when said trooper had been assigned to the Inquisition for the foreseeable future. Shaking his head, Biot reached up and tapped his comm. bead.

"Trooper Biot, gate 3, to command," he said. "17:00 check in. All quiet so far."

"Roger that Trooper," came the quick response. "Anything to report?"

"Negative command, the locals seem to be avoiding the area. It's all quiet."

"Hopefully the Emperor will see that it stays that way. Make sure to check in again at 17:30."

"Yes command," Biot replied rolling his eyes as he switched off the comm. bead. "And after that," he muttered, "perhaps you can teach your grandmother to suck eggs." Settling back down, Biot glanced carefully down the three streets leading off from the gate. At first there had been a few gaping onlookers, but once a Warhound had strode over to the area and proclaimed through it's over-sized vox-ponder that 'trespassers would be shot,' the locals could only be noted by their absence. Concluding that the streets were still clear, Biot settled back and started to mutter the litany of awareness.

He had just reached the end of the first verse, when a large cargo truck rolled out of the city and started down towards the depot. Bringing his lasgun to bare, pointing only slightly lower then the truck, Biot watched it warily as it rolled to a stop in front of the gate.

"Hello," an Administraum adept in the standard featureless robe said as he hopped down from the cabin. "We're here with the last of the supplies for the base."

"Really?" Biot said doubtfully. "I was under the impression that the last of the supplies arrived over an hour ago."

"You weren't told?" the adept said, looking surprised. "There was a mix up; some of the supplies were misplaced. We've just finished locating them, and I came along to apologise personally for the mix-up."

"Even so," Biot replied, keeping his lasgun aimed only slightly away from the adept, "without orders I can't let you through."

"Oh! Of course, Emperor forgive me for my laxness." The adept handed over a data-slate, which Biot examined carefully.

"These look genuine," he admitted, "but the fact remains that I wasn't alerted of this."

"Damn," the adept muttered, frustration creasing his face. "Why don't you check with your commander? See if they can get this sorted out?"

"Right," Biot agreed, reaching for his comm. bead with his spare hand.

Biot was a decent soldier. Smart. Loyal. Faithful to the Emperor. He was, without his knowledge, being considered for a promotion and command of a squad. Even now, despite having been convinced of the genuineness of the supply run, he had kept the adept and his vehicle covered.

Unfortunately, his caution and professionalism didn't help. Before he could react, the adept swept his robes out of the way and slashed forward with a hidden third arm. The hidden rending claws tore Biot's head from his shoulders before he could even react.

The adept stepped forward, snatching up the lasgun with one hand even as the other triggered the open rune on the panel set into the wall. Even as the gate rolled silently open on well-balanced gears, the adept pulled himself back up into the truck cab.

"Quick," he hissed, "we've only got twenty minutes at best."

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Shinji winced against the sudden brightness of the setting sun as the door hissed behind him. Orgenati had organised a long Synch test as soon as the base's core was complete, both to check the final readiness of the Evangelions and to check the readiness of the depot to test the ability of the base to support the two giant mecha as well as the Legio Titanicus.

Unfortunately, although Shinji and Unit 01 had completed the test without a problem, Asuka had been less lucky.

_"What? What do you mean 'we need you to stay'?" Shinji winced silently as Asuka glared at Orgenati as the Tech Priest shrugged, servos whining in protest._

_+++THERE IS AN ODD GLITCH IN UNIT 02'S SENSORIUM+++ he replied. +++WE NEED YOU TO MAINTAIN THE LINK WHILE WE DISCOVER THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM+++_

_"That'll take hours!" Asuka growled, "and we've already been through over an hour of synch tests already!"_

_+++THE RITUAL OF SYSTEM ANALYSIS ONLY TAKES THIRTY SEVEN MINUTES+++ Orgenati replied sourly. +++WOULD YOU PREFER TO GO BLIND IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE?+++_

_"Fine," Asuka muttered, turning back towards the dressing room._

_"Would you like me to wait for you?" Shinji asked._

_"No, no," Asuka replied over he shoulder. "Go on and get some rest. I'll see you later."_

Shinji shook his head, coming back to the present as he started down the street to his room in the designated hab. area…

…and stopped as the reason for a sudden feeling of unease registered.

The area was silent and empty. There was nobody else in view.

_What in the…_ Shinji began to wonder.

There was a _crack_, accompanying a surge of pain from the back of his head. The world seemed to blur and fall sideways. Then, it went away.

Savart grabbed the boy as he collapsed and dragged him around the corner of the building and towards the silent truck.

"Quickly," he hissed, pushing the boy ahead of him into the truck. "We have him, but we an have only minutes before they discover us. Release the Pure ones and take us to the brood-father."

The truck shot forward, crushing the piled corpses of the people that they had silently snatched off the street and killed to clear the way, and raced off towards the nearest gate. Even as it fled, the rear doors slammed open.

And a brood of Genestealers poured out of the fleeing truck and into the compound.

To be continued…

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**Gargent;** The Orkish equivalent to a Titan. Imagine a pyramid made of thrown together lumps of rusty metal. Replace the top with a crude metal replica of an Ork head and add stumpy legs underneath. Place two arm mounted weapons on the sides and a third cannon protruding from its belly. Festoon it with various gantries, protrusions and gun waving Orks holding on wherever they can. Finally, imagine that, regardless of all the laws of engineering and physics, it doesn't fall apart or explode anywhere near as often as it should. That is a Gargent; big, dangerous, containing massive amounts of firepower and constantly leaving a trail of bits of its structure that have fallen off.

'_**The Tracks on the Land Raider'**_ Originally mentioned in the Commissar Cain story 'Death or Glory'. There are at present, no words, but from context are probably along the lines of (sung to the tune of 'the wheels of the bus');

_The tracks on the Land Raider crush the heretics, crush the heretics, crush the heretics._

_The tracks on the Land Raider crush the heretics all through the war…_

**STC;** Standard Template Construct. As has been previously indicated, the Standard Template Construct was essentially one of the foundations of the Dark Age of Technology. It is known that it was some for of computer program containing all technological designs created by humanity, and when provided with a list of requirements and local resources it could create a near perfect design for whatever is needed. Some tales also indicate that it could build whatever it designed, suggesting some form of automation, and that the STC's were actually sentient.

Unfortunately no known STC remains intact. All that has been recovered are fragmented pieces; designs expressed in pure, simple information so effective that many believe even an illiterate savage from a barbarian type world could understand and use them. Most of the best technologies of the Imperium are based on STC fragments (such as geo-thermal power stations, pre-fab hab-domes and of course the designs of the Rhino and Land Raider) and unlike other technological knowledge, time and religion are not slowly degrading the effectiveness and understanding of these technologies; STC constructs are as effective today as during the Great Crusade.

The Adaptus Mechanicus consider the STC to be incredible holy relics; even the slightest hint of a fragment of STC data is enough to cause immense crusades of Mechanicus forces launched into the area.

**Skitarii Tech Guard;** The Adaptus Mechanicus maintains it's own equivalent to the Imperial Guard. The Skitarii legions tend to have access to better equipment then their Imperial Guard counterparts, and surgical and mechanical augmentation are common. Although the Skitarii are indeed capable of fighting on the front lines, the main reason for their existence is to man and support the war machines created by the Adaptus, and to provided fighting men to guard various purely Mechanicus expeditions.


	5. Chapter 4

Well, I guess it's that time again. I hope you enjoy!

**GaleBread;** Thank you. I'm glad that my writing is improving, a story is much better when it is well written. And a good day to you too.

**S J C;** Well… normally I would say something along the lines of no comment, but this _is_ set before the end of Final Crusade, so I guess it is fairly obvious that Shinji won't become a hybrid. Although… people infected by Genestealers don't tend to show much in the way of symptoms. It's not until the later generation that signs of mutations show…

**nick2951;** Well, here's the next chapter, I hope it was soon enough for you.

Weapon-VII; I'm glad you enjoy it. Just to reiterate; 'The Tracks on the Land Raider' was not originated by me, I just came up with some lyrics to go with the title. As for the cultists, they haven't quite gotten away yet… although a brood of Genestealers does tend to be one hell of a distraction. Thanks again for your comments.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be sent to the Eye of Terror to spy on Abaddon the Despoiler. Without a Null ship.

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_They have blue skin, their lack of obvious emotions is creepy and they smell like weird spices. But they're honourable, and I'd rather have them on my side then fighting against me._

High Admiral Parol, CO, combined Imperial, Tau fleet 'Harbinger of Justice'

Authorised by his Most Holy Imperial Majesty of the Human Imperium and Aun'Va of the Tau Empire

134 M42 (4th Sphere of Expansion)

**Chapter 4**

"Inquisitor Lord Thorne," Thorne said, taking the hand of the ranking Arbites officer.

"Captain Yartius," the Arbites replied, shaking Thorne's hand with the slightly painful grasp of an augmentic hidden by the uniform's glove. "I come representing Marshal Halbite. Unfortunately, our forces are somewhat stretched at the moment, or he no doubt would come himself. I do have these though." Thorne took the proffered sheets of paper and scanned through them quickly.

"Signed documents from several Arbites medicae indicating that the Marshal is free of Xenos taint?" Thorne nodded slightly at Marshal Halbite's initiative. "Not conclusive…but a good sign. I presume you will be reporting back to him later?"

"Indeed," Yartius replied, nodding. "While we don't have the manpower to cleanse the Genestealer cults, let alone resist a full Tyrannic invasion, we have been able to establish locations and sizes of most of the cults on planet. Unfortunately, we've only been able to identify small numbers of the _actual _members, otherwise we would have called in PDF aid in taking them out, but the Marshal feels that driving them underground now would be…counterproductive." Thorne nodded in agreement, noting the slight undercurrent which suggested that Yartius didn't agree with this course of action, and had probably argued against it at some length.

"Well," Thorne began, "I organised a…" Thorne found himself interrupted as the depot's alarm began to shriek.

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Tech Priest Dayalin sprinted down the street, the fear running through his veins stimulating his adrenal glands and a part of his augmented brain, far removed from the fleshy concerns filling the rest of him, had interestedly noted how the adrenaline had forced him to move faster. The parts of him that hadn't been so divorced from reality had been busy trying frantically to get away from the source of the horrific screaming that he could still hear even over the loud thumping sound in his ears.

Spotting a vox-unit inset in one of the manufactories exterior walls, Dayalin diverted his course and skidding to a halt next to it. As the screams of the last of the dying tech-guard faded, Dayalin stabbed the emergency line to the depot command centre.

"'Stealers!" he shouted, overriding the surprised query, "there are Genestealers in the compound! Junction 1C!"

Spinning as the depot's intruder alert began to sound, Dayalin took in the situation with the speed only enhanced senses and an augmented brain could handle. A series of quick calculations indicated that there was zero probability of reaching any cover before the charging chitinous abominations reached him.

Logic suggested only one course of action to Dayalin's terrified mind. He pulled out the Las pistol that he had carried ever since he had stepped onto this world and opened fire at the charging swarm.

The first shot fizzed past the leading monster harmlessly. The second clipped it's knee, causing it to stumble and fall behind the rest of the brood. The third las blast tore into the new leader's mouth as it lunged forward, blowing out the back of it's head.

There was no fourth shot.

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"Report!" Thorne snarled into his comm. bead as he drew his ancient plasma pistol from it's holster.

"We have reports of intruders in the base, my Lord!" someone in the command centre replied through the vox channel. "Genestealers at junction 1C!"

"Damn it," Thorne muttered, before turning back to the others. "Quickly, follow me." He ran for the streets in between the pre-fabbed structures, and heard the pounding of footsteps as the Arbites and his driver followed. Glancing at the signs, Thorne quickly found his way to street C, and ran down as fast as possible.

"There," Thorne hissed as he spotted the Genestealers heading down the road towards them. "Find whatever cover you can."

He dropped down behind an abandoned crate at the side of the road, the pale driver following. The Arbites scurried for cover behind an off-line cargo servitor, one of them clambering up the servitors back to rest his shotgun on the machine's shoulder.

"I'll draw them in," Thorne ordered, waving the Arbites down, "you wait until their close, them hit them with your shotguns.

As the Arbites ducked down out of sight, Thorne carefully took aim and fired. A back-blast of heated air scalded his hand as a blue teardrop of energy hissed out of the pistol and slammed into the chitinous side of one of the creatures. It exploded, scattering the 'stealer over the street and the nearest members of it's pack.

Thorne ducked down behind the crate as the driver opened up with his laspistol. The weak las shots didn't bring down any of the 'stealers, but one snarled in shock as a lucky blast tore an arm from it's socket.

"Steady," Thorne hissed, ignoring the whine from his plasma pistol as the magnetic coils cycled up for another shot, "steady… Now!"

"No enemy of the Emperor escapes unpunished!" Yartius shouted as the five Arbites leaped out of hiding. Five shotguns barked as one, and all four Genestealers at the front of the attack simply came apart mid-step.

The rest of the brood charged over the remains in the time it took for the half squad to pump their weapons. One of the Arbites was torn apart by a Genstealer's rending claws, a second falling as a second 'stealer ripped his head off with a single blow. Yartius hit the floor as the 'stealers bowled over the cargo hauler, the other two Arbites desperately leaping away from the falling servitor's bulk.

Thorne fired again, blasting apart a 'stealer crouching over Yartius' body as he desperately tried to bring his shotgun around. The 'stealer next to it spun, snarling as it spotted Thorne. Thorne braced himself as the 'stealer crouched to leap.

There was a roar, and a hail of bullets shattered the abomination before it could move. Spinning, Thorne almost found himself gaping in surprise as the tracked form of a bulky Praetorian pulled up to a stop, twin-linked assault cannons tracking the Genestealers one by one with smooth machine precision.

The Genestealers broke off, trying to flee for the side streets, but none made it as a second Praetorian, this one wielding an autocannon and a hissing power fist, rolled out to join the first, the cannon barking with murderous intent. The last of the Genestealers tore apart under the fire, and the hulking servitor constructs grimly studied the street.

-TARGETS DESTROYED- one stated flatly. -INITIATING SEARCH PATTERN FOR FURTHER TARGETS-

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Princeps Garthonie fought down the _Draco Nobile_'s righteous anger; enemies of the Emperor were near, but the noble Warhound was powerless to attack them without damaging or injuring the nearby buildings and people.

"Princeps, I may have something."

"What is it Moderati," Garthonie asked, leaning forward.

"I have a contact; civilian vehicle on route to the city."

"And? Alarms blaring, soldiers running round, even our own God-machines agitated… what sane civilian _would_ hang around?"

"I backtracked the truck's path through the sensorium short-term records, Princeps," the Moderati replied. "It smashed out of the depot through gate 3 fifty three seconds ago."

"Give me fire control," Garthonie said instantly. His senses seemed to expand massively as the ancient Warhound's mind merged with his own. His arm throbbed as the plasma blastcannon charged up to full power. His neck twitched as the Warhound's arcane systems locked onto the fleeing vehicle.

_Ah… dammit, _he snarled mentally, before reaching over and flipping on the vox.

"Command, I'm tracking a fleeing civilian vehicle. It seemed to have been involved with the attack, but the city is within the same line of fire. Requesting authorisation to fire."

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Orgenati waited with the patience only a tech-priest can have as the elevator creaked it's way up to the depot's command centre. There was a clang as the car halted, and the doors pulled open on massive steam hissing pistons.

REPORT+++ Orgenati said as he strode into the incense filled room.

"We recieved reports of Genestealer-type Tyranids within the depot," an Enginseer replied. "Their presence was confirmed by Inquisitor Thorne, and the rapid-response units quickly destroyed the intruders."

PRINCEPS GARTHONIE OF THE _DRACO NOBILE_ REPORTS A POSSIBLE HOSTILE CONTACT+++ a tech priest interrupted. +++A FLEEING CIVILIAN VEHICLE THAT WAS LEAVING THE COMPOUND. THE CITY IS WITHIN THE _DRACO NOBILE_'S LINE OF FIRE. PRINCEPS GARTHONIE IS REQUESTING WEAPONS RELEASE+++

Orgenati hesitated, considering.

NEGATIVE… WE ARE NOT HERE TO SLAUGHTER THE IMERIUM'S CITIZENS INDISCRIMINATLY. STAND _DRACO NOBILE_ DOWN, THE ARBITES CAN PICK UP THE HERITICS LATER; THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE THERE FOR+++ Orgenati turned back to the face the room at large. +++I WANT A FULL SWEEP OF THE COMPOUND; ENSURE THAT ALL INTRUDERS HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH. WE ALSO NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT THE ATTACKERS WANTED. MAKE A HEAD COUNT; I WANT TO KNOW WHO WE'VE LOST+++

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"What _were_ they planning," Thorne growled, dropping the data-slate with its blunt statistics back onto the table. He glanced around at the other three around the table. "Nearly two dozen people dead…but nobody from high ranks or crucial positions, no serious damage to the depot… Captain, have any of the cults you've located tried anything like this before?"

"No," Yartius replied as he shock his head. "The cultists have been getting bolder since the Shadow fell over us, but they've never tried anything like _this_. They know as well as we do that attempting to hit a PDF of Arbites facility without overwhelming numbers that they simply don't have; they'd get slaughtered for little return."

INDEED+++ Orgenati agreed+++THE ONLY REASON THAT THEY MANAGED TO DO SO MUCH DAMAGE WAS BECAUSE WE WERE STILL SETTING UP THE BASE. AS A SAFETY PRECAUTION, HOWEVER, I'VE HAD THE GUARD DOUBLED, AND I'VE HAD SKULL DRONES CONSTANTLY TRANSMITTING TO THE COMMAND CENTRE AT ALL POTENTIAL ACCESS POINTS+++

"Good, but that still doesn't explain what they intended," Thorne continued. "A single brood of 'Stealers would never have done much damage. There _has_ to be something else."

"Perhaps they intended it as a distraction," adapt Farvarth suggested, leaning against the table. "Maybe they wanted to draw attention away from something they were doing in the city or…" Farvarth broke off as Orgenati tensed suddenly.

LORD OF MACHINES… THEY _WERE_ DOING SOMETHING HERE. THE GENSTEALERS WERE INTENDED ONLY TO DESTRACT US SO THEY COULD ESCAPE WITH THEIR PRIZE+++ Thorne and the others shared a glance.

"What prize," Thorne asked, confused.

WAIT FOR A MOMENT+++ Orgenati replied, holding out a hand. After a moment, the door connecting the small conference room to the command centre clanged open and a Tech-priest floated in, holding a skull-drone in a mechendrite.

I HAD THE PRIESTS CHECK ANY MACHINES IN THE AREA, HOPING TO GET A PICT-CAPTURE, AND I JUST RECEIVED A VOX FROM ONE OF THEM+++ Orgenati said, taking the skull-drone. +++WE WERE LUCKY; THIS DRONE WAS IN THE AREA. IT HAS A RECORDING OF THE INCIDENT+++ Orgenati plugged a mechendrite into the skull-drone and a second weaved itself into the room's holo-projector.

The resulting image was fuzzy, more so then normal for Imperial technology. It was still clear enough for Thorne to make out a truck parked next to a large Mechanicus building.

_Isn't that the Evangelion maintenance Manufactorium,_ Thorne thought, frowning. He watched as the cultists hid themselves, ambushing and killing anybody walking too close to their hiding place. The entrance to the manufactorium pulled open slowly and… _No…Emperor's undying mercy, no!_

Thorne watched with growing horror as a cultist in Administratum robes clubbed Shinji Ikari to the ground, before tossing the pilot into the back of the truck. The truck pulled away from the building, driving off the edge of the screen. A couple of seconds later, a brood of Genestealers flashed across the screen, running in the opposite direction to the truck.

Orgenati shut down the projector.

"By the Throne," Thorne finally said after a shocked silence. "They have him."

To be continued…

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**Marshal; **One of the higher ranks of the Adaptus Arbites.

**Plasma pistol;** A small, hand-held version of a plasma gun. It uses similar technology to produce a sphere of coherent plasma, which explodes on contact. Due to the small size, there is little in the way of safety features, and many people have died when their pistol overheated.

**Cargo servitor;** Built in much the same way as a Gorilla, a cargo servitor is (as the name suggests) a servitor designed to move heavy cargo with two large clangs wired into it's arms. As with all servitors, it is a mixture of vat-grown flesh controlled by a cloned human brain.

**Plasma blastcannon;** As the name suggests, the plasma blastcannon is a plasma-based weapon firing the same sphere of explosive plasma. It is a Titan-grade weapon, however, with enough power to vaporise squads and punch through all but the toughest armour, although it is not as powerful as the Thunder Cannon usually mounted on Warlords. It's size also means that it is heavily equipped with various cooling systems, ensuring relatively safe operation.


	6. Chapter 5

Here is the latest instalment from the 41st millennium. One thing I've noticed with the last couple of chapters, is that I haven't really given Shinji or Asuka much screen time. Hopefully, this'll fix that.

I also need to point out that, once again, I have exams very shortly, so this story will be left alone for the most part over the next two/three weeks. After that, my exams will be over for better or worse, so I can get back to work then.

**GaleBread;** I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for pointing out the mistake; I have every intention of going back over the story (and Reborn Warriors) at some point and editing out errors and clumsy sentences. Soon. Probably.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be added to the Penal regiment assigned to monitor the growth of Van Grothe's Rapidity.

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_Evangelion? Don't be ridiculous, that's an ancient legend, long gone to history._

High Lord, Ecclesiarch Largite

**Chapter 5**

_Field Titan Depot_

_Primary Conference Chamber_

"I'm sure you all have some idea as to why you're here," Thorne said bluntly as he glanced around the briefing room. Unlike the small annex off the command centre, this room was large enough to seat virtually every ranking officer and non-combatant of rank in the base, though, admittedly, not comfortably.

"However," he added, "to quickly review; a few hours ago, a local Genestealer cult infiltrated the facility, utilising gaps in the base's security network, and released a horde of 'Stealers into the base. The good news is, despite being able to break in relatively easily, the other preparations that were made and the stand-by squads quickly isolated and destroyed the intruders and the abominations they worshiped, thank the Emperor. We've taken new precautions to cover the holes that this attack revealed, and I believe that the depot is nearly complete anyway, so any further such attack will fail."

INDEED+++ Orgenati agreed. +++THE _WARRIOR'S CHARIOT_ WILL FINISH UNLOADING THE LAST OF THE FORTIFICATION WITHIN THE HOUR. THE FACILITY WILL BE COMPLETE BY THE END OF THE DAY. THE SHIP ITSELF WILL THEN LIFT, AND HIDE IN THE SUN'S CORONA+++

"Good," Thorne nodded. "Unfortunately there is… bad news." Thorne hesitated, finally letting his eyes meet those of an increasingly annoyed, and even more worried, Asuka Soryuu. "During the attack, the intruders killed several people…and successfully abducted pilot Ikari."

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For several seconds, it simply didn't register. Asuka had been increasingly worried when no one seemed to know where Shinji was, but the idea that he was really gone just didn't seem real…

"WHAT!" she snarled standing up so quickly that her chair skidded back into the wall.

"I'm afraid that a group of cultist with 'Stealer support kidnapped Shinji Ikari," Thorne repeated softly. "A servo-skull recorded the attack." He tapped a control, bringing the room's ceiling mounted holo-display to life.

Asuka watched the hologram in horror as a robed figure attacked Shinji and pulled him into a truck. She felt the stomach drop out of her stomach as the truck drove off-screen and the projector shut down.

Aside from the Evangelions, Shinji had been the only person remaining in her life from before the near brush with 3rd Impact. And, despite being trapped in Unit 01 and being brought about 38,000 years into the future, losing an arm and fighting in two wars that would determine the fate of the galaxy, he was still essentially the same Shinji that had listened so timidly to her boasts on the aircraft carrier _Over the Rainbow_, and yet fought so hard against the fish-like 6th Angel. Even Unit 02 had changed, although she had leaped at the chance to make amends and work with the soul of her long-dead mother, but Shinji hadn't changed. He was her best friend, and her only anchor in a world… in a _galaxy_ that had changed beyond all recognition.

_I_ _can't_ _loose him_. _I_ can't

"How do we get him back," she snarled, ignoring the subtle shift in her peripheral vision as her neighbours slid slightly away from her.

Thorne studied her for a moment before replying.

"_We_ don't," he replied. "You are staying here."

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Shinji groaned. A massive headache seemed to be tearing apart the inside of his skull.

He slowly sat up and carefully brought a hand to the back of his head. As his hand touched his skull, a spike of pain slammed though his thoughts, causing him to double up in agony when his stomach convulsed in reaction.

_Concussion_, said the part of him that had learned first aid back in NERV and later on Nemisis Tessara. _Move slowly and get to a doctor._

Shinji carefully opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. The room was a tiny cell, the walls made of rusty metal. The solid looking wall at his back curved both up and down, to form a ceiling, while the other walls looked like plates of metal crudely welded into place, a rear door from a truck-like vehicle forming a crude, but secure entrance. Shinji blinked, realising that he was in as large pipe, with a crude, but effective cell made by welding extra bits of metal to seal part of it off. The bed he was sitting on was crudely made from planks of wood hammered together and wedged into a couple of rents in the wall.

"Ah, you're awake," someone said.

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"What? I'm _not_ staying here!" Asuka snarled. "Shinji needs help and I…"

"…and you are the _only_ person left capable of piloting an Evangelion," Thorne interrupted bluntly. "Shinji's the only person who can pilot Unit 01. Without him, Unit 01's useless, meaning that we're down to _one_ functional Eva. Don't forget that there is a wider war out there; and the Evangelions are the _only_ weapons the Imperium has that can face off against Abaddon's corrupted copies.

"If we loose you as well, we'll _never_ be able to stop them."

"And I'm supposed to just wait here?" Asuka asked, glaring at the stony-faced Inquisitor.

"No," Thorne replied, shaking his head. "I've been planning out a rescue force with High Tech Magi Orgenati and Captain Yartius here, the representative of the local Arbites. While we shouldn't need an Eva, I want you ready to lend us a hand if resistance turns out to be heavier then anticipated." Asuka glared at him for a few seconds, before tugging her chair back to the table and dropping into it.

"Fine," she muttered angrily.

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"Who are you? What's going on?" Shinji asked carefully watching the face peering in through the shattered window in the door. The half hidden face curved in an amused grimace.

"Ah, yes…" he said, amused. "It's that time isn't it. The time where, in the holodramas, the evil monster revels his despicable plans to the trapped prisoner. And of course, while he's withering on, the 'Emperor-fearing, good guys' hatch some plot to defeat him." The unknown person sneered. "You'll pardon me if I decline the invitation."

"You aren't even going to tell me your name?" Shinji asked, surprise overriding his sense of self-preservation for one dangerous second. The person stared at him for a few moments silently.

"Well…" he chuckled, "You will be privy to that, indeed, to _all_ of our secrets soon enough." He lifted something up to the window, causing Shinji to flinch back against the pipe. The object gave out a hissing sound, and Shinji suddenly found his head starting to swim even more then before.

"Soon," the unknown person continued, stepping back, "you will see the light. And then, you _will_ be one of us."

With that last enigmatic comment, Shinji lost consciousness again, falling into the dark.

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"It seems that the odds against us just keep growing," Farvarth sighed, leaning back from the table. "We're the only military unit in the system, aside from the Arbites and the PDF, and with all due respect, neither of those units were intended to face Tyranids. Not only that, but the _Forthright Gaze_ hasn't been heard from for days, and now, on top of everything else, one of our Evas is useless!"

"Things aren't quite as bad as they seem," Thorne replied. "Just before the _Warrior's Chariot_ and our escorts entered the Shadow, I received an astropathic message from the _Devine Right_."

"Oh?" Yartius asked curiously, leaning forward. "What did it say?"

"'Horus didn't come to the Emperor, so the Emperor went to Horus,'" Thorne quoted, smiling slightly. "The _Warrior's Chariot_ and our escort were intending to meet up with the _Devine Right_ and the rest of Battlefleet Gothic in preparation for an assault on the Dark Crusade's flank. When Admiral Semper heard of the damage loosing this system to the Tyranid could cause, he took it upon himself to order one of the Battlefleet's task forces to break off and head straight for Loroncis. They'll arrive in less then a week. Regardless of victory, or lack thereof, the Tyranid will not escape this system easily."

"Nice to know," Asuka interrupted, "but… _How_ are we getting Shinji back!?"

"Ah," Thorne said, leaning back in his chair. "As I said, High Tech Magi Orgenati, Captain Yartius and myself have constructed a suitable plan of attack…"

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"_First, the Arbites use the intelligence they've gathered to secure the known entrances to the undercity areas taken over by the 'Stealer cultists."_

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Vanbarine smiled pleasantly as the customer handed over a handful of credits and picked up his groceries. So far, life was continuing as normal for the planet, with the slight exception of the uproar caused by the arrival and rapid deployment of the Titans.

This wasn't all that surprising. Information control was one of the Inquisition's greatest tools for preserving humanity. It was a control so encompassing and complete, that most humans didn't even know it was there. It was only the fact that he, technically, wasn't human anymore that gave Vanbarine the viewpoint to see and admire the sublime power of that control.

_Of course_, he sneered silently, staring at the back of the retreating customer, _herd-creatures like _that_ are so blind, that even an Ork could lead them around by the nose without them ever seeing the truth. Soon, our fathers will descend and cleanse this planet of their lies…_

There was a crash up the street. Vanbarine watched in astonishment as a black Arbites Rhino smashed through a stall and careened up the street towards him. Ignoring the spike of fear from his despised, human taint, Vanbarine spun and ran into his store.

"Hoods!" he screamed, yanking open the hidden hatch in the floor. "The hoods are…"

A shotgun roared from the shop's doorway, tearing him in half. Even as his corpse hit the floor, a hooded guardian of the Emperor's Peace dove in through the door, and tossed a grenade down the open hatch. A sudden scream was silenced as the grenade detonated with a roar.

Even as several more armoured figures moved in, covering the hatch, the first figure activated his vox.

"Squad Gamma-3. Target 6, secured."

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_"Then, we send an all out assault through the nearest entrance to what we believe to be the central headquarters of the cult. They'll hit fast, and smash as far in as they can."_

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Praetorian Epsilon-12 rolled down the tunnels, artificial eyes scanning every inch of the tunnel systematically. So far, the lumbering, incredibly deadly servitor had yet to meet anything that posed much of a threat, despite the small-arms scoring on it's mechanical components.

Ahead, a group of people lunged out from a side shoot, trying to bring weapons to bear. Bullets spattered from it's surface as the servitor scanned for FOF transponders. Targeting systems sprung to life when no such signals were spotted and the shoulder-mounted autocannon levelled itself, before opening fire.

Rapid firing 50mm shells tore into the cultists, shredding them almost instantly.

Sensor spines spun, realigning to examine it's rear as several more people ran up behind it. Quickly identifying the newcomers as Tech-Guard securing the junction, the Praetorian ignored them, it's tracks rolling it further down into the undercity.

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_"Of course, as soon as we begin the attack, they'll send their forces at us, and accelerate any plans they have for pilot Ikari…"_

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"Wake up, boy," a voice hissed. Shinji gave a muffled groaned as he sat up. Tried to sit up.

Gagging on the crude leather gap tied into his mouth, Shinji glanced down at his arms as he instinctively tugged at the restraints. Metal clamps, set into some kind of stone, were holding down his arms. A quick check showed that his legs and chest was bound in the same way.

"Brothers!" the same voice that woke him shouted out. He was wear robes marked with stylised markings resembling creatures Shinji guessed were Genestealers. Looking round, Shinji realised that he was trapped on some kind of alter, surrounded by silent hooded shapes.

_Oh, hell… _his mind conclude, silently summarising the situation.

"We have been chosen! Those of the weak who have been selected by the Brood to become strong, to see the lies that the prey-Imperium ties it's cattle down with! It is weak, and only the strong survive!"

The silence was almost unnerving; the cultists simply stood and watched the speaker with a fervour that Shinji felt was all too similar to a disturbing, silent hunger.

"And the All-Fathers have arrived! We can all feel them, crossing the lifeless dark!" The preacher thrust back the cloak, revealing bands of chitin that crossed his chest and a third arm that was tipped with a trio of very sharp-looking talons.

"In reverence to this auspicious arrival, we accept this young one into our pack. With him, and his relic of times past, we will cut open the arteries of this world, to welcome our All-Fathers to the feast!"

_Welcome me?_ Shinji wondered as the cultists began to hiss, a strange twisting noise that rose and fell in a horrifically animal-like fashion, _how are they going to 'welcome me'? They have to know that there's no way I'll…_

'…_Genestealers hide deep beneath the cities of the Imperium, choosing victims to corrupt with their foul gene-implant. This gene-spore slowly alters the genetics and mentality of the victims, who usually remain unaware of their infection. Those that know of this taint, however, invariably become fanatically loyal to the Tyranid, regardless of the strength of their convictions and loyalty prior to infection…'_

Shinji's eyes widened in silent horror as the passage rolled through the back of his mind. Desperately, he began to tug wildly on the clamps, which refused to give.

"The Father of the Brood himself comes to judge the boy, to decide whether he will join us in the hunt, or if he will only flee as prey, to be hunted and consumed."

The crowd drew apart as one. Something huge and horrible began to slink it's way past the crowds. Shinji froze, powerless to move as it's hypnotic gaze fell on him.

It looked vaguely like the illustrations and pict-captures of genestealers within the codex, a part of his numbed mind noted. It was larger though, the blood red, chitinous armour was thicker, over swelled muscles that would not have looked out of place on a Space Marine or daemon. The lower pair of arms had grown into a pair of lengthy scythe-like talons, which were held against it's abdomen, ready to reach out and slash. Thin tendrils of lightning flickered around the distinctive bone plates on the head, framing the black, pupil-less eyes that held Shinji's gaze.

"Come, Father!" Shinji faintly heard over the blood thumping in his ears, "take this one! Show him the light of the Brood!"

The patriarch, for that is what it must have been, leaned down over Shinji, the ovipositor in it's tongue pulling apart slowly as it lowered it's head.

And Shinji saw only light…

To be continued…

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**Holodrama;** 41st millennium equivalent of modern day movies. 3D movies displayed in large theatres and stuffed full of more pro-Imperial propaganda then all 1st and 2nd World War films put together.

**Battlefleet Gothic;** The 12th dark crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler was aimed into the Gothic sector, some distance from the Cadian Sector. Warp storms sealed off the entire sector, and Chaos forces attacked across the entire domain. Most of the attacks, and even the first use of the _Planet Killer_, were little more then distractions away from Abaddon's true goal; the six Blackstone Fortresses that formed the backbone of the Imperial Navy in the Sector. Abaddon managed to capture some of the fortresses, but a combined Imperial, Eldar effort disrupted his plans, and he was forced to flee with only two of the fortresses. Shortly after, the other Blackstones self-destructed. Since then, Battlefleet Gothic has always been prepared to face Abaddon wherever he appears, and formed the first wave of reinforcements during the 13th Crusade.

The flagship of Battlefleet Gothic is the _Emperor_-class Battleship the _Devine Right_; the hull of which was recovered from a space hulk and is estimated at being at least twice the age of the Imperium. As of the Final Crusade, the CO of the battlefleet is Admeral Semper, descendent of the infamous Captain Semper of the _Lord Solar Macharius_. Although the Battlefleet was gutted when Abaddon moved into the Gothic sector (the only diversion he made in his advance, apparently made in revenge), enough ships still remain to be considered a formidable force of War.

**FOF;** Friend or Foe. A transmitter that identifies friendly units to minimise the chances of friendly fire. For Imperial technology, FOF transponders tend to be surprisingly reliable.

**Patriarch;** When a Genestealer cult becomes established on a planet with sufficient bio-mass to attract a hive-fleet, it invariably develops a Patriarch. One of the original Genestealers (usually the first to arrive or infect a victim) undergoes a 'hormonal storm'. It alters, growing more bulk, stronger muscles, thicker armour and stronger weapons, becoming a fast, intelligent and brutal killer. Most importantly, however, it's nervous system becomes vastly more efficient. Although a Genestealer brood and a sufficiently large cult can create a hive-mind capable of reaching a Tyranid hive-fleet, it remains indistinct and muffled. The Patriarch acts as a control, refining the hive-mind and communicating with the Tyranid over-mind. This means that Patriarchs tend to be prime targets; if it can be killed before it can attract the attention of a hive fleet, then the Genestealer cult remains incapable of summoning the Great Devourer, regardless of it's size. Unfortunately, Patriarchs can develop in a matter of days, and as soon as one dies, a different Genestealer starts to mutate into one. Thus, the cult is never out of contact with the Tyranid for too long.


	7. Chapter 6

Right then, time for the last chapter before the exams start on Friday. I hope you all enjoy it.

**nick2951;** Shinji joining the brood… Well, all I'll say is, read on!

The Blackstone Fortresses, so far as I can tell, have had several fates; Abaddon's Fortress that was disabled and boarded by Imperials came apart during the Gothic war, as did the Fortresses that Abaddon hadn't managed to capture. I don't know if this destruction was ever explained, it could have been the Necrons. Nothing was known about the other two Fortresses, until the 13th Crusade, when one of them attacked Cadia, destroying of the planets fortresses before being _disabled_ by Necron attackers and fleeing. No mention has been made of the other one.

I believe I've said it before; Necrons will not appear in _this_ story, but depending upon inspiration or lack thereof, they _may_ appear in a sequel, if I can figure out how to make them a reasonable threat to the Evangelions (a Monolith just doesn't cut it).

**GaleBread;** All I can say is that all will be explained in this chapter. I am glad you enjoy my writing style, I'll try to keep it up. As for the Necrons, see above. If you or anybody else has suggestions on how to make Necrons into a credible threat, speak up.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be implanted with a Genestealer implant, studied, and then cleansed. With fire.

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_So fast… So fast…_

The last words of Princeps Gathron, recovered from the wreckage of the _I__mperious Gladius_

**Chapter 6**

Shinji saw only light…

And it wasn't the white light of death or some kind of new 'understanding'. It was a bright blue flash, accompanied by a bang that rendered him quite deaf.

Blinking away the spots in his eyes, Shinji strained to make out his surroundings. The patriarch was slumped on the ground next to the alter, it's head hollowed out by a plasma blast. Several of the cultists were dead, and the rest were scattering, several drawing weapons, or dropping their clocks to revel claws, spikes and other mutations useful in close combat.

More gun-fire, bright red las-shots intermingled with the dull roar of shotguns, were sweeping in from a large pipe (easily big enough to handle three or four people side by side) jutting from one wall, the grill that had apparently covered it lying on the floor.

"Quickly," the three-armed preacher screeched, charging towards the intruders, "hunt them down, my…" A second blue plasma bolt hissed into his chest, before detonating with a wet roar.

A blast of fire erupted from the pipe, the Flamer's blast dropping the remaining cultist even as they struggled to drag their burning limbs forward. A last blast of las-fire finally felled the last of them, as a mix of red-armoured Skitarii and black-clad Arbites filed out of the pipe, taking up positions around the room.

"Ah, Shinji," Inquisitor Lord Thorne murmured as he holstered his hissing weapon. "Fancy meeting you here."

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"…_which is why I and a light, fast moving team will infiltrate the opposite side of the 'Stealer 'base' during the attack and use the lighter enemy presence to locate and extract pilot Ikari as quickly as possible." _

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"Frag," Captain Yartius snarled as another cog wheel symbol vanished as the corresponding Praetorian died under a cultist's rocket launcher.

"We are loosing the initiative," Skitarii-General Bicenti replied calmly. "The Genestealer cultists appear to have rallied, and have managed to bring stolen heavy weapons to the fore. With their superior, psychic communications and superior knowledge of the undercity, they will easily frustrate any attempt to advance that does not include at least 37 percent of our forces on-site, fatally weakening the cordon around the infestation."

Yartius muttered a curse under his breath, only partly aimed at the re-grouping cultists. Bicenti was competent, smart, an effective C.O… and as a receiver of emotive surgery, disturbingly emotionless. Yartius was working with him, but he wasn't happy about it.

"It would a good idea to alert the Inquisitor to the change in circumstances," Bicenti continued. "It is not likely that we would be able to extract him or his team safely."

"Get me a vox," Yartius snarled, throwing the Tech Guard officer a smoking glare.

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Shinji winced as Thorne firmly pulled his tunic open and gave his torso a critical glance.

"No sign of implantation…" he muttered, painfully twisting Shinji's body against the clamps to study his back. "It looks like you're clear…but you'd better be checked out by a medicae once we get back to base." Thorne reached out and tugged open the clasp.

"You_could_ have asked," Shinji muttered as the last clasp opened and he slid off the altar, rubbing his wrists.

"You would have answered the same either way," Thorne replied, shrugging slightly. "Form up," he continued, turning to the scattered squad. "We'll move out back through our route in. Johnson, take point with your flamer."

"Here," he added, turning back to Shinji as the Arbites and Tech Guard shifted towards the piper they had entered through, "you could probably use this." He tugged a compact Bolt pistol from a second holster and held it out, butt-first.

Shinji took the pistol, hands checking and arming it with an instinctive ease gained from months of training and combat against the worst abominations the galaxy had to offer. _I'll never get used to how easy I find this_, he thought to himself sadly.

"Move it up," one of the Arbites snapped. Shinji shook his head clear and followed his rescuers into the pipe.

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Shinji winced as he stubbed his foot on a raised edge, yet again. Both the Arbites and the Skitarii had illuminators, but the rest of the pipe was unlit, and there were plenty of joins to catch an unwary foot.

"Hold," Thorne said quietly holding out his hand. He was silent for a few seconds, head tilted as if he was listening to something. Shinji spotted the discrete shape of a comm. bead resting along his jaw.

"What is it… What strength resistance? ...Understood. Any chance of an extraction? …No, don't waste their lives. I have an alternative. Pull out and form a perimeter, Thorne out."

Thorne glanced up as he twisted a knob on the vox-bead. "Sargent, we've been cut off," he said flatly. "The main strike force is pulling back, and reports from scouts indicate that the cultists have circled around us. I have another extraction plan, but we need to get as close to street level as possible."

"Understood," one of the Tech Guard replied, nodding. "Garson, prep that Melta. According to the plans, there's an adjoining corridor 5 meters ahead, and if they're hunting us, they'll probably have found our initial entry point into the pipe.

Shinji winced, covering his eyes with one hand at the flare of the jet of super-heated air. Even over the creaking and groaning as the edges of the newly forged hole in the pipe started to cool, he could hear Thorne muttering into the bead.

"…yes Orgenati, you heard me right. Send her in."

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Galet snarled, spiriting across the street and diving into an alley as shotguns roared, tearing apart the cart he had just left. Looking around, he cursed silently as he realised that it was a blind alley.

One of the few hunters of the Brood caught outside the cordon the soulless Skitarii abominations and the monstrous Arbites had thrown up around the edge of the den, the Brood-fathers had decided that he was expendable. Their telepathic prompts had caused him to charge into the squad guarding one of the major accesses into the undercity; a diversion with the intention of drawing soldiers away from the adjacent entrances, so his pack could attempt a break out.

Glancing around, Galet desperately hunted for an exit, before shucking off his shirt. Top-less, he glanced at the nearest wall speculatively, before forcing a series of muscles that humans were not supposed to have to convulse. Hidden pores opened up in his chest and a group of flesh-hooks shot out, catching hold of the window edge on the next story up.

He slung the stolen shotgun and then grabbed hold of the wall, pulling himself up as the muscles in the flesh hooks contracted, pulling him up. He glanced down at a series of bangs, and watched with bated breath as a trio of Executor rounds, flew into the alley. He seemed to have gotten high enough to be outside their machine spirits' range, since they passed under him and detonated harmlessly.

Reciting silent praises of thanks to the Tyrannic Masters of the hunt, Galet pulled himself further up the wall, using hands and flesh hooks in consort to reach the building's roof.

He carefully crept over the roof, finding a vantage point over the mindless slaves below. He crouched, ready to leap down, shotgun blazing.

There was a crash from behind him. He spun, saw a flicker of red…

…and an unstoppable force slammed into him, killing him in an instant.

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Shinji twisted behind a rusting machine, flinching as the stubber rounds bounced from the pealing casing. Some rapid footwork, combined with judious use of the Tech-Guard Sargent's Auspex, had kept them ahead of most of the cultists out hunting them with murder in their eyes. Unfortunately, the same telepathy that had allowed the hybrids to re-muster and stall the Imperium's advance into their domains had come to the fore, allowing the cultists to out flank and trap them.

"Grenades in three," an Arbite shouted, hefting the green object in a hand. A trio of the grenades flew down the tunnel. a scream, accompanying an explosion, signified the temporary end of the stubber fire, until another hybrid apparently took over.

"'Stealers coming in from this side," a Skitarii shouted from the other end of the Mechanicus shrine they had ducked into, "Garson, where's that Melta?"

Shinji winced at the sudden flare from the heavy weapon, before he thrust a arm out, firing back down the corridor blindly. There were several bangs, as the explosive shells slammed into the permicrete walls… accompanied by a howl of pain that twisted something in Shinji's gut.

"We're right below street level," Thorne was snarling into his vox-bead from his cover behind a support strut. "Can't you home in on this signal or something?"

Whatever reply there was, was hidden by a scream as the Melta-wielding Tech Guard fell backward, half his chest missing.

"Someone grab that Melta!" Thorne shouted. "Before the 'Stealers get here!" An Arbite rushed out…and collapsed as a sniper shot took off his head.

"Here they come!" Shinji aimed at the monsters as they charged towards them, his breath caught in his throat.

The ground shock. That was the only warning.

Then, there was a screech of tortured metal. The ceiling of the corridor pealed away, debris dropping from the edges as it rose. First, a pair of giant, red-armoured hands came into view. Then, as the chuck of road, power lines and, from the spraying water, sewage system was dropped, the full red, twenty-story glory of General Purpose Combat Unit Evangelion (General Production, Version I), Codename; Unit 02 came into view.

Even the charging Genestealers hesitated at the sudden appearance of the immense warmachine… which turned out to be a mistake when Unit 02 stomped on them, sealing off that side of the corridor with rubble, bodies and a size 200 foot.

"Quick," Thorne shouted, shaking the stunned group out of their stupors, "lay down covering fire." The still shaken soldiers moved, directing as much firepower as possible back down the unblocked path they had come from. The 'Stealer cultists were already fleeing though, apparently unwilling to confront them against _that _much support.

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Shinji sagged against the Rhino's bulkhead in relief as the rear hatch pulled shut. _I'm glad that's over…_

He frowned, as a memory grabbed his attention.

"Inquisitior?" he asked, a sudden feeling of doubt grabbing him.

"Yes, Shinji?" Thorne asked, glancing up.

"There was something about Savart's speech, when the cult had me…"

"Oh?"

"He…he said that the Tyranid were arriving now, that the only reason they were trying to 'convert' me, was because the Hive fleet was already overhead…"

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"Interrogator-Captain?" the Lieutenant in charge of the sensorium station said.

"Yes, Lieutenant," Interrogator-Captain Arkland asked, looking up from a copy of _The Music of the Spheres_.

"We're getting something… odd on the sensors, sir."

"Oh?" Arkland asked, standing and walking over to the sensorium annex, "and what does this 'odd' look like?"

"Well…" The Lieutenant leaned past one of the oblivious servitors and tapped on the screen. "It's like a fuzz, or some kind of dust. Whatever's causing it is just large enough to register on the sensors."

"A meteor storm?" Arkland suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe… but I've never seen meteor storm scattered over such a large area."

"Are we seeing any life signs? Any signs of Tyranid signatures?"

"No… But… Our sensors are designed to register Tyranid life signs for escort-equivalent bio-ships and larger. I'm not sure what effect a smaller size would have on the readings; the Mechanicus would be better informed as to that."

"I see… Better safe then sorry. Keep monitoring them, see what the short range sensors show as they close." Arkland strode out of the annex and returned to his chair, before turning to study the rest of the bridge.

"Tactical," he snapped, "bring Voids to full power, activate the close range defences and prep the servitor-drones for launch and intercept. Comms, get me a vox-line to the _Calm and Cooperative_." Arkland smiled as the noise and activity in the bridge jumped, the_Needle_ rousing from it's silent, lazy orbit.

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Tightbeam (single-direction) commstream generation (12/486.e).

Carrier-code [Oscillate:42.9 34.647. Priority-4. (1/341.q) Datastream transmission only

Logging receipt…

Target receiving. (1/385.d).

INQUISITON CODE PRIMUS 7

GENERAL HAIL. Suspend comms-traffic for duration.

Channel sustained.

[Arkland, what the _hell_ are you up to? Your Voids just jumped to full power, and we're reading energy jumps in your defence mounts

Pavel, surely you see the approaching contact+++

[That?! It's just a meteor storm, or possibly orbital debris of some kind

Maybe… But there are _Tyranid_ approaching. What if…+++

[Tyranid? They're still at least a couple of days away

Inquisitor Thorne left us orders to be careful. Perhaps I'm being paranoid…+++

[_Perhaps?_

…but I would prefer caution just in case+++

[…grah. Fine. I'll prep for possible action, but I'm not spending hours and wear and tear going to full combat-readiness and back to standard running without more to go on. Beside, half-strength Voids would be more then enough handle anything that small

Channel interrupted

Tightbeam un-expectantly shut down (ref-12/486.e)

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"Arrogant grox-herder," Arkland muttered, returning the vox-horn to it's stand. He turned away, and hesitated. "You didn't hear that, ensign," he added.

"Hear what, my Lord?" the ensign manning the station asked, maintaining a surprisingly straight face. Arkland threw him a smoking glare, but he was distracted from ordering an immediate execution by a call from across the bridge.

"Captain, the contacts just moved into range of the close-in sensors." Arkland strode away from the suddenly red-faced and shaking ensign and dropped into his seat.

"What have we got Lieutenant?"

"Multiple small objects inbound, approximately 20 to 100 meters length. I'm running them through the Cognitors now…" he hesitated. "The objects are unusually smooth…"

"Hmm…" Arkland mused. "Do…"

"Throne! Boarding Spores! They're Tyranid boarding spores! Velocity change… they moving to intercept us and the _Co-op_!

"Tactical, defences free!" Arkland snapped. "Helm, come 10 degrees to port at one quarter power; impose us between the _Co-op_ and the spores, we need to buy them time for them to come to combat-readiness. Sensorium, watch for bio-ships; they _have_ to be right behind those spores." He stabbed at the controls mounted in his chair. Across the ship, speakers came to life, accompanied by the mournful toil of the 'all-hands' bell.

"All hands, brace for impact! Prepare to repel boarders!"

To be continued…

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**Emotive Surgery;** Also termed the Unction of Clear Thought, emotive surgery involves a simple operation on a human brain to suppress a person's emotions. It tends to be used mostly by the Adaptus Mechanicus, mostly due to the improved sense of logic thought that results from the surgery.

**Melta;** A very powerful weapon; it fires a stream of super-heated air so hot that it can burn or melt through anything. The only disadvantages are it's weight and short range. Preferred weapon for use in a kill-team, simply due to it's shear destructive power.

**Flesh-hooks;** A common Tyranid bio-morph, a series of chitinous hooks on the end of a strand of muscle (similar to a chameleon's tongue), which can be used to allow Tyranid organism's to scale otherwise impassable terrain.

**Executor rounds;** A type of specialised heat-seeking shotgun shell, commonly utilised by the Adaptus Arbites.

**Stubber;** The predecessor to the heavy Bolter, a rapid firing weapon that fills the air with poorly aimed bullets in very large amounts.

_**The Music of the Spheres**_ A text written by Inquisitor Ravenor.

**Boarding Spores;** The Tyranid Hive mind uses a variety of spores, from a constantly replaced swarm of kamikaze spores to shield the valuable Hive ships to the Mynotic spores to deploy Tyranid organisms to planetary surfaces. One group of spores is grown with a limited intelligence, rudimentary propulsion, claws and acid vats; all intended to guide the spore to a ship, chew its way in, and then regurgitate a variety of Tyranid organisms to take out the ship's crew.


	8. Chapter 7

Right, first off, let me apologise for taking so long to update. I finished my exams a while ago, but even with little else to occupy me, this chapter was only coming out in slow dips and drops. Still I got ther in the end.

Oh, and if you enjoy this story, I recommend Charles Bhepin's epic story 'Shinji and Warhammer40k' also on this site? It far outstrips my work in shear levels of awesome. For example; when Shinji is enraged with Gendo, he gets this advice…

_"Kicks him in da teef, lil'boss. Boots ta da h__ead!"_

_"Well, that might be hard considering he's taller than I am." he had enough attention to spare for that, even as he parted some of the girl's hair away from her tightly-shut eyes. She was so familiar... like that brief vision he saw at the street? It couldn't have been this girl, but still he felt as if he should -know- her somehow._

_"How is that a problem? Remember, plan sequentially." the Farseer said far too calmly. "Kick him in the shin, first, and when he lifts that leg to rub it, you may punch him in the genitals. THEN when he is kneeling is WHEN you may kick him in the teeth."_

_Silence met her declaration, stretching out in the timeless nature of the mind._

_"... when you say things like that" the Space Marine was finally brave enough to  say. "Is when I am reminded as to why your Race ruled the galaxy for eons before humanity had even evolved out of our primate ancestors."_-chapter 1, Shinji and Warhammer40k

That simple section had me in stitches for several minutes, and it just gets better from there. I really recommend it.

Anyway, onto your reviews;

**GaleBread;** We know Shinji's still human. The Inquisition's yet to be convinced. Interesting point about the effect of Necron weaponry. I'll have to consider that…

**nick2951;** Maybe I'll put the Necrons into the mix in a future story. I'm not yet sure. An Eva's armor is pretty air-tight, so Tyranid spores probably wont have any effect. A damaged Eva on the other hand…

**Alpha Inventor;** Thanks for your review! Monoliths… all I really know about their anti-Titan capability is what I read in the earlier mentioned 'Commissar Cain' novel. Perhaps I can use them in a later fic, perhaps not… we'll see. I'll have to finish_this_ story first, though.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be tossed to a hungry Hive Tyrant.

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_You promised that my children would one day rule the stars in a peaceful and advanced society. _Don't_ disappoint me, First._

Psychic transmission from an unknown source, somewhere within the Imperial Palace.

Recorded one month prior to the Warlord's attack on Terra

**Chapter 7**

Shinji relaxed into the seat as the Rhino stopped jolting about, having finally reached an area of the highway that _hadn't_ been damaged by Asuka's 'extraction' efforts.

There was a snap-hiss from the front of the passenger cabin, accompanied by a quick chant. Shinji glanced up and spotted Thorne fiddling with the Voxponder build into the Rhino's black-painted interior.

"Pilot Soryuu?" he overheard Thorne saying. Shinji watched in surprise as Thorne winced, and pulled the headset off.

"I think she wants to speak to you," Thorne said, smiling wryly. Shinji hesitantly pulled the headphones on.

"Asuka?" he hesitantly asked.

"Shinji!" came a reply, sounding more relieved then he had ever heard Asuka sound. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Shinji replied, smiling unconsciously. "I think so. I mean, I've still got a headache, but…"

"Good. Now…" Asuka paused for a second, before shouting loud enough to nearly deafen him, "what the _hell_ did you think you were doing! You had me worried sick! I mean…"

"Well, I…" Shinji began, trying to interrupt Asuka's rant, which sounded like it would be one of her longer ones, only to stop in surprise when she fell silent, leaving only the hiss of the open vox.

"Shinji, switch this over the speaker," she said finally, worry evident in her voice. Shinji hesitantly tapped a few of the vox's runes, causing the headset to go dead and the speaker to crackle into life. "Inquisitor…" Asuka continued, her voice now filling the APV, "were there supposed to be any kind of live-fire exercises in orbit? Only, I can see weapon fire from one of the Black ships."

"No," Thorne muttered, leaning over and tapping at the vox. "There isn't." A second channel opened with a snap. "Thorne to Titan Depot. We're seeing orbital weapons fire, are…"

YES+++ Orgenati interrupted. +++WE JUST RECEIVED WORD FROM SKY COMMAND. THE TYRANIDS HAVE ARRIVED+++

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The _Needle_'s bridged vibrated with the noise of the ringing alarm bells as hole after hole was being torn in the ship's Void shield, and faint sounds of gunfire and screams could occasionally be heard echoing through the air ducts.

"What the frag is going on," Arkland snarled, glaring at the bridge's designated Tech-priest, who had buried two mechendrites into the Tactical cognitors and a third into the ship's internal vox net. "Our Voids are at full power, those spores should be splattering on them like flies against a grav-car's windscreen."

THE TYRANIDS SEEM TO BE DEPLOYING SOMETHING NEW+++ the Tech priest replied calmly, mechendrites twitching under the weight of moving information. +++IT APPEARS TO BE SOME FORM OF BIOLOGICAL CAPACITOR CHARGED WITH PSYCHIC ENERGIES, A 'PSYCHIC BOMB'. THE DETONATIONS BLASTS ARE ACTUALLY MINISCULE IN COMPARISON; TEARING HOLES LESS THE TEN METERS ACROSS, WHICH SEAL UP IN LESS THEN A MINUTE. UNFORTUNATLY, WE ARE BEING HIT BY 4.6 BOMBS PER MINUTES, AND CLUSTERS OF BOARDING SPORES ARE RIGHT BEHIND EACH BOMB+++ The Tech priest turned, meeting Arkland's eyes in a surprisingly human gesture. +++IF WE GET UNDERWAY, THE DAMAGE WILL DECREASE; IT IS ONLY WHILE WE REMAIN STILL THAT SO MANY SPORES AND MINES CAN SO ACCURATELY TARGET US+++

"Understood," Arkland replied, before spinning to the comm. section. "Comms, tell me that the _Co-op_ is at full readiness."

"They report having active defences online," came the quick reply, "but they still only have half power to the Voids, and the Gun-crews are only at half strength. They need fifteen more minutes, minimum."

Arkland stared down at the tactical plot for a few seconds in agonised indecision, and then shook his head.

"We can't afford to cover the _Co-op_ for any longer," he muttered unhappily, before raising his voice in an order. "Contact Captain Pavel, and tell him we can't suffer any more damage for him. Helm, come to all ahead full. Guns, load a group of plasma torpedoes set for short burn, and use the dirty ones I had loaded in magazine twelve. As soon as we pull clear, I want us to rotate, and fire them directly into the densest concentration we can see."

Arkland watched the stars shift, the subsonic vibration of the engines rising as they poured out their power.

"Captain, we're getting a warning from Sky Command; they're opening fire."

Arkland fought back a curse. Sky Command, command and control of the all of Loroncis' space assets, was a massive Ramilies class fortress, capable of fighting of entire fleets by itself, it was the pride of the Loroncis system.

It was also the only thing in the Loroncis system actually worth a damn in combat, since the resources sunk into it had apparently stripped the rest of the system defences bare. The other orbital stations used for storing the agricultural produce of the system for trade elsewhere only mounted a single plasma turret apiece, and the system defence monitors were worse! Only two of them mounted any decent weapons, and the rest used batteries of what was essentially Guardsman-type Lascannon! Easily capable of herding around the unarmoured merchants about, admittedly, but they would be little more then second rate chaff in a real engagement.

The only break they had was that Sky Command orbited Loroncis VI. Even so, it could cover maybe a sixth of the planetary ark, and it's defences could be overwhelmed by the swamping tactics of the Tyranid as easily as any other Imperial instillation. The worst part was that, regardless of the quality of the equipment, the fortress had been manned by the Loroncis PDF and Navel drop-outs from the Schola.

"Captain," came a call from the sensorium annex, interrupting Arkland as the_Needle_ began to rotate, aiming it's prow away from the planet. "New contacts; bio-ships at extreme range. They're coming in fast; the bio-plasma of their engine-analogues is flaring brightly into the sensorium clusters."

"How many," Arkland asked, watching the tactical plot as the new contacts started to form at the edge of the icons marking out the edge of the sensorium range.

"Dozens," came the flat reply.

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The black coloured Rhino tore into the depot at speed, barely scraping through the widening gap in the opening gate, before tearing across the open field, dodging Titans as the giant God-machines strode across the pen. As the Titans and the anti-air Hydras began to open up, filling the air with tracer rounds and high energy beams, the tank screeched to a halt, hatches hitting the battered permacrete before the APV even stopped.

"No," Thorne shouted as he ran out of the tank. "First, you're getting a gene-scan from the base's apothecary. I'm not letting you in Unit 01 until we're sure the hive fleet won't be able to turn you without warning!"

"But, Asuka…" Shinji tried to argue, running right behind Thorne as they entered the Apothecarian.

"…is quite capable of taking care of herself," Thorne interrupted grimly. "The first wave is likely to be little more then disposable cannon fodder while they test our defences and resolve. Get yourself checked out. That's an order."

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The anti-air defences of the prefab depot constructed on Rorgatein IV had been intended purely to defend the base once it had been assembled; nobody had anticipated that it would have to also intercept attacks aimed at a nearby city. Fortunately, the Adaptus Mechanicus was a huge fan of over-engineering. The assembled defenses had been able to throw out a ridiculously large amount of firepower, tearing massive holes in the descending xenogens.

The first mynotic spores hit in a rough circle around the city, defined by the edge of the air defences coverage. The spores remained inert for a short time, steaming in their own craters. Then their skins began to writhe, claws and talons tearing their way out of the roasted fleshy shell.

Within a few short minutes, all of the spores had ripped apart, spilling hundreds of Tyranid out into the fertile fields. Their inhuman eyes studied the planet. And then, as the Hive mind sent a single, immutable command, every creature charged at once, their eyes fixed on the city.

Behind them, a second wave of spores carved out new craters in the agri-fields.

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"What's our status?" Thorne asked, pushing past the command center's armoured door before it could fully open.

REPORTS FROM SKY COMMAND AND OUR ORBITAL UNITS INDICATE THAT THE SPACE-SIDE SITUATION IS NOT… OPTIMAL+++ Orgenati muttered from the room's central podium. +++MULTIPLE CONTACTS HAVE BEEN POSITIVLY IDENTIFIED AS TYRANID BIOSHIPS, AND THE ORBITAL STATIONS DEFENCES ARE BEING OVERWHELMED JUST DEFENDING THEMSELVES. THE MYNOTIC SPORES ARE BEING VIRTUALLY IGNORED, ONLY OUR GROUND DEFENCES ARE FREE TO ENGAGE THEM+++

"Damn…" Thorne muttered, moving beside Orgenati, absent-mindedly waving a wisp of the ever-present incense aside. "What about the ground forces, can we track them?"

RECON ELEMENTS ARE TRACKING THE FIRST TYRANID WAVE, AND WE CALCULATE THAT THEY WILL ENGAGE US WITHIN 27.0489 STANDARD MINUTES. I'VE DEPLOYED SKITARII AND GUARD UNITS TO REINFORCE THE PDF FORCES DUG IN AROUND THE CITY, AND DEPLOYED 75 PERCENT OF OUR WARHOUNDS TO SUPPORT THEM. THE REST OF THE WARHOUNDS AND THE WARLORDS ARE BEING RESERVED FOR NOW+++

"And Unit 02?"

OUTFITTED WITH LIGHT, ANTI-PERSONNEL WEAPONARY AND SENT TO THE OPPOSING SIDE OF THE CITY. WE SHOULDN'T SEE ANY BIO-TITANS UNTIL THE HIVE-MIND HAS HAD A CHANCE TO EVALUATE OUR DEFENCES+++

"Understood," Thorne nodded, as he studied the plot. There was a faint beep, as a second ring of symbols flickered into existence, marking the emergence of the second wave of Tyranid bio-forms. Thorne frowned. Several of the symbols looked much larger then any of the symbols in the first wave.

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The_Needle_ shuddered as another wave of bio-plasma scored glowing wounds in the ship's Void shields.

"Damn it," Arkland hissed, glaring at the plot. If the _Needle_ had had enough velocity, the noble ship could have easily out manoeuvred the slower hive ships. Unfortunately, covering the _Calm and Cooperative_ had held the Needle back for too long; they hadn't been able to avoid being surrounded by the bio-ships.

"Damn it Guns, where the warp are my torpedos," he snarled.

"The magazine's jammed Sir, the Tech-priests claim that they'll be ready in a few minutes."

"We may not _be here_ in a few minutes," Arkland growled. He span to face the sensorium annex. "What about the _Co-op_? Can they cover us?"

"Unknown, Sir. They've taken multiple serious hits; they've stopped transmitting, and she's bleeding energy from the port side. I think she's lost her port weapon batteries."

"Frag." Arkland glared at the plot, before shaking his head. If there was a weak point in the web of ships that the hive mind had weaved together, he couldn't see it. _Damn it, there's got to be something…_

"Captain," someone shouted from the sensorium annex, "Sky Command is approaching the edge of its engagement zone. Twenty minutes, and it'll be out of range of the main Tyranid fleet."

Arkland winced; Sky Command and it's crew had performed remarkably well and the station remained mostly intact, but a lucky blast had ruptured a fuel tank. The resulting explosion had blasted Sky Command clear out of it's geo-synch orbit, and with the station-holding engines drained of that fuel, the Ramilies fort couldn't re-enter it's orbit. When it drifted behind the planet's horizon, it would be incapable of firing at the Tyranid, making a bad situation much, much worse. The fact that it would probably smash into the planet in a couple of weeks was immaterial; the Tyranids would have consumed all life on the planet long before then.

The_Needle_ shook under a fresh bombardment, flinging Arkland from his seat and slamming him face first into a railing.

"Report," he hissed, pushing himself up, clutching his jaw.

"Void failure; both generator's are completely fried! Decks three and seven have lost pressure, and battery starboard-3 has been completely destroyed!"

"Frag! Helm, bring us up 12 degrees, rotate 30 degrees to…"

"Contact!" an ensign screamed across the bridge, "Ordinance inbound from heading 278, 32 ascension, impact in 37 seconds… mark!"

Arkland stared down at the tactical plot as a trio of new icons flickered into existence, dangerously close to the _Needle_. He glanced up at the armourplast dome, just in time to see a trio of torpedoes flash past on plasma-drive, close enough for their exhaust to flare across the Voids.

The torpedos fragmented, splitting into dozens of fusion warheads that slammed into the side of the Tyranid Hive ship, detonating in a flash that consumed nearly a third of the abomination's flesh.

"Quick," Arkland shouted into the stunned silence. "We've got an opening!" Come to heading 78 degrees at full available power, and rake that abomination with the starboard batteries as we pass; make sure it's dead."

"Captain," the comm. officer called out over the sudden noise as the bridge crew sprang back to life, "we're receiving a vox signal, from a ship identifying itself as the _Forthright Gaze_."

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Princeps Garthonie's eyes unconsciously swept over the cockpit in sympathy with _Draco Nobile_'s sensorium, as it scanned the surrounding landscape. Assigned as a long-range scout a few dozen kilometres outside the edge of the city, the Warhound had already blasted apart dozens of the foul Tyranid swarms. The God-machine had become harder to control then before; the machine-spirit had tasted blood and longed to rend the enemy apart.

"Nothing but ants…" Garthonie muttered, dismissing the swarm of gaunt-variants with a sneer and a blast from the Titan's vulcan bolter. "Tactical… I require something more…substantial to turn my guns on."

"Aye, sir," came the quick reply. As the Tactical officer started to fiddle with his console, muttering beseeches to _Draco Nobile_'s machine spirit, Garthonie brought the metal beast about, and started to slowly circle clockwise around the city

"I…might have something here, my Lord," the Tactical officer finally said after a few minutes. "A large bio-signature. Very large; it must have been several swarms that joined together."

"Good," Garthonie nodded, "what's the bearing?"

"238 degrees sir, 3700 meters. In the wood."

Garthonie grinned, swerved round to the left and brought his vulcan bolter to bear. Several thousand 500 centimetre, explosive rounds blasted through the wood, shredding the entire forest in an instant.

A sub-sonic roar filled the air, so loud that Garthonie could have sworn that _Draco Nobile_ itself vibrated with the sound's fury. A monster arose from the shattered wood like a daemon from the pit. It leaned back, tall as a warlord, it balanced easily on a long serpentine tail as six taloned limbs clawed ad the sky, and roared again, freezing Garthonie with it's fury for a second. A second too long.

The bio-titan charged forward, moving forward on it's tail with grace and speed that no creature that size had a right to display.

"Moderati, fire the blastcannon!" Garthonie screamed, gesturing desperately at the abomination. Roaring, the cannon pulsed, magnetic fields slinging a ball of blue fury directly at the beast's chest. It lunged aside impossibly fast, the kill-shot only managed to tear of one of the beast's limbs off. Garthonie clenched his fist as his mind battered at the plasma blastcannon, forcing it to recharge dangerously quickly.

The arcane technologies were too slow, as the monster tore into the Titan, it's scythe-like arms, tearing away the plasma blastcannon and it's mount as it hit. Other talons tore deep into _Draco Nobile_'s superstructure, tearing power cables, butchering crew and immobilising the left leg. Terrified beyond belief, Garthonie tore at the mind impulse link, desperately trying to bring the vulcan bolter to bare.

Before he could manage it, the monster spewed a stream of bio-plasma into the cockpit. Inhaling instinctively, Garthonie drowned in his own blood as the plasma ripped apart the fragile tissues of his lungs.

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Tearing the head from the brittle body of _Draco Nobile_, the bio-titan that the Imperium classified as a Trygon tilted it's head back, allowing the pre-digested morsels to drop into it's gullet. Discarding the metal remains of the noble war-machine, the creature turned its black eyes to the city, visible in the distance.

To be continued…

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**Ramilies class fortress;** One of the cornerstones of Imperial defences, it is an STC construct re-discovered by Magos Lian Ramilies. The fortress has more weaponry then half a dozen battleships, an lifetime of over 3,000 years and is even capable of limited warp jumps, allowing for undreamed of tactical and strategic flexability.

**Trygon;** A Trygon is a bio-Titan that closely resembles a Warlord-scale Ravener. It uses scaled up scything talons and bio-plasma in combat, and can also use it's talons to undermine defenses, carving out monstrous tunnels that other Tyranids can then use to travel into battle. It bears a genetic resemblance to the Heirodule, only born with close combat limbs instead of acidic bio-weapons.


	9. Chapter 8

Right… I want to say up front that I'm really sorry I haven't updated for a while. With my inspiration drying up, problems to sort out with Uni and simply real life intruding, I just haven't been able to write anything.

It has absolutely nothing to do with getting a copy of Mass Effect. Any claims to the contrary are lies and slander.

I do have some news to make up for the delay, however. I recently began working on another side-story that several of you have been asking about. I hope to have the first part put online within the week.

**nick2951;** I have to say, I always find fight scenes hard to write, so I always feel a bit relived to hear that someone enjoys reading them. The Lance probably won't be in this chapter, but I'll get to it, eventually. Thanks for your review.

**GaleBread;**Thanks, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Kyuubi-Titan;** Thank you. Praise is what makes the wheels of fanfiction turn.

**TheGreenKnight63;**_Wince_ Updates… Yes… I _did_ say how sorry I was, didn't I? Anyway, thanks for the review.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be pressganged into the Imperial Navy.

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_And lo, in the darkest hour, even the weapons of the past came forth, so full of righteous rage at the foulness of the traitors that it broke even their deep slumber…_

Imperial Holy Text

The Book of Eva

Page 12

**Chapter 7**

Asuka snarled as she brought her Vulcan bolter around and blasted apart the forward edge of the Tyranid pack as it neared the defence point that she was supporting. Several swarms and a couple of larger beasts erupted into shards of chitin and splatters of ichor. The swarm slowed as the Hive mind consolidated it's remaining synapse creatures to cover the entire swarm, but before the Tyranids could start advancing again, PDF mortars and light tanks began dropping shells on the swarm, disrupting the attack further.

Asuka lowered the bolter, allowing the autoloaders to cycle in the next magazine, and stopped herself, yet again, from swatting at the ever-present swarm of gargoyles around her head. They had shown up barely minutes after the first spores hit, and had immediately begun suicide runs against both the ground forces and Unit 02. They swarmed around her like the mosquitoes during the hight of summer back in Tokyo 3, and Asuka had found herself instinctively swatting at them with the same lack of success. Fortunately, the gargoyles were comparatively much less dangerous then the mosquitoes had been; their acidic and living projectiles splattered against armour rated for N2 detonations with all the effectiveness of rotten eggs (including the smell).

"Pilot Sohryu, this is Command," crackled from the radio as the typical 'sound only' window superimposed itself on the entry plug. "We've lost contact with the Warhound _Draco Nobile_, but before they went off the air, we received vox traffic from them indicating at least one Titan-class contact. You're the closest and fastest combat unit available; so we want you to do a quick recon. Head towards grid-ref 2342, and remain in contact. Over."

"Understood command," Asuka muttered, blasting apart the rest of the swarm as it finally began to surge for the PDF again. "On my way."

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The atmosphere in the medicae could only be described as tense as the gene-auspex whirred and clicked to itself. Shinji lay back down on the buck, and forced his mind to focus on the unusually soft mattress under him, the aches in his wrists and feet from the hybrid cultist's clamps, anything. Anything, but the five equally tense Arbites with their shotguns pointed _not quite_ at him.

"How much longer," the sergeant -a man who had leaped at him and dragged him out of the fire of a stubber not one hour ago- growled loudly at the bustling medicae, rising his voice over the moans and shouts as the first casualties from the ongoing attack began to filter in.

"Hold on, hold on," the medicae muttered, grabbing the parchment spilling out of the auspex and scanning it. "The results are almost ready. Any moment now…"

A dull, scratchy bell tone sounded from the auspex's speakers and the servo-skull half embedded in the device stopped scribbling, tore off the parchment and handed it to the medicae with a mechanical flourish.

The tension rose sharply as the doctor studied the document closely, muttering under his breath.

"He's clear," the medicae finally said, quickly rolling the parchment up and slipping it into a numbered scroll-case. "A few unusual gene-sequences, probably due to his, ah, _birth date_, but no presence of Tyranid DNA."

Shinji sagged slightly in relief as the Arbites slung their weapons.

"Good," the sergeant nodded, before turning to Shinji. "We'd better get moving Pilot Ikari. The Inquisitor Lord wants you at the Evangelion Pen asap."

Shinji slid off the bed and, with a backward wave to the medicae, ran from the room, the Arbites falling in around him.

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Chucks of mud, grass, plants and the occasional remains of a too-slow Tyranid were tossed skyward as Asuka jogged out into the agri-fields surrounding the city at a speed a light scout Titan could barely match.

_Anything?_ She idly thought at the shadow at the back of her mind as she started to climb up a hill towards the blinking coordinates on the bird's-eye-map floating on the entry plug's screen.

_No,_ came Kyoko's reply. _Nothing large is showing on the sensors, neither some huge Tyranid… or the _Draco Nobile_. I'm not certain about these bio-sensors though. They seem…_

A roar filled the world and sent a Asuka's spine as something came over the ridge ahead of Asuka, before sowing to a halt and hissing in cautious warning.

_Complaints later, Mama,_ Asuka thought, already turning her focus to the creature. It was a serpentine monster, five taloned limbs tensed and ready to tear, while a sixth small, but rapidly growing limb sprouted from a shattered arm. Glowing, super-heated bio-plasma dripped from it's jaw as it hissed at the unexpected threat. Reacting quickly, Asuka started to raise her gun.

The Tygon moved first.

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Shinji entered Unit 01's cage at a run, the Arbite squad peeling off to join the other soldiers guarding the building, and dodged around servitors, startled Techpriests and the massive bulk of Unit 01's left foot. He grabbed his slightly worn plugsuit from the lockers against the wall and, ignoring the adjacent changing rooms, split for the elevator running clear from the ground to the top of the structure.

UNIT 01 IS ALMOST READY a Tech-priest Shinji vaguely recognised shouted as he left the elevator.

"On my way!" he shouted back, running for the gantries at a fast sprint. A servitor was already opening the entry plug's hatch as he reached the immense Evangelion. Shinji climbed into the entry plug, which jolted and descended into Unit 01 almost as soon as the hatch closed. Ignoring the chants as the Tech-priests slowly woke the behemoth, he struggled into his plug suit, wedging the clothes into a corner of the seat.

WE'RE FLOODING THE ENTRY PLUG the vox warned, as Shinji slipped the neural headsets into place. PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE DEPLOYMENT

"Roger," Shinji replied, fighting down his gag reflex as the rising LCL passed his chin. "Initiating synchronisation."

Shinji winced as the cables wound down from the ceiling of the entry plug and slotted into the back of his neck. As the screens flickered into life, the mind-impulse link thrust it's way into Shinji's head, like a thin needle.

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The beast shot forward with an uncanny grace, four immense talons (one still smaller then the others, but growing quickly) spread ready to slice at the giant mecha. Asuka blasted at it with the bolter, sending shards of chitin flying. The stream of explosive shells actually tore several holes in the creature's carapace, but the wounds were minor, and sealed up almost as quickly as they formed.

As the Trygon opened it's jaw and tensed to leap, Asuka dropped the bolter, spread her hands and focused. The monster leaped for Unit 02's head… and slammed into the orange glow of an A.T. field.

Asuka quickly deployed the shoulder fin, grabbing the axe-blade with one hand. A quick twist deployed the extendible haft with a hiss of steam. Dropping the field and grabbing the power axe in both hands, Asuka swung, hard.

The blade swung straight for the Trygon's head, but the beast dodged with snake-like speed, the killing blow only managing to re-sever one of the monster's talons.

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PILOT IKARI a Tech-priest's voice hissed over the radio as Unit 01's clamps disengaged COMMAND RECOMENDS YOU USE THIS WEAPON

Shinji glanced down as a trailer rolled to a stop, a bulky weapon cradled within several heavy-duty clamps. Shinji carefully pulled it loose, and examined the oddly familiar weapon in surprise.

"Wait… is this a melta?" he asked, in surprise. "I thought that it was impossible to construct one on this scale."

IN THEORY, YES. EVANGELIONS DO NOT HAVE THE BUILT IN SUPPORT MECHANISMS OF A TITAN came the reply WITHOUT THEM, THE REQUIRED SIZE OF THE BARREL ALLOWED THE SUPER-HEATED AIR TO DISPERSE TOO RAPIDLY, REDUCING RANGE TO A COMPARATEVLY USELESS MINIMUM. YOU WILL NOTICE THAT THIS MODEL REPLACES THE SINGLE LARGE NOZZLE WITH MULTIPLE SMALLER, PARALLEL BARRELS. THIS ALLOWED THE THERMAL STREAM TO REACH A MORE EFFECTIVE DISTANCE

Nodding, Shinji shifted the weapon to his left hand and snagged a tank-sized Bolt pistol. He clipped the handgun to the mag-clamp on Unit 01's waist that, in the absence of several herds worth of Grox-hide, served as a holster. Grasping the melta again, Shinji ducked out under the manufactorium's slowly rising exit, before breaking into a sprint.

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Dropping the remains of the axe, Asuka desperately grabbed at the talons as the beast smashed into her. Unfortunately, she needed at least three hands, and she only had two. The twin upper limbs shuddered to a halt a mere handful of meters from her neck, her hands holding them tight. The lower two limbs scratched uselessly at her armour, two small and weak to do anything but scratch paint. The third talon, however, stabbed unimpeded into her abdomen, the sheer power behind the limb forcing the talon clear through both sets of armour and Unit 02's implant-riddled flesh. Asuka choked in sympathy as the pain seemingly slid through her own stomach.

As she slumped in pain, the Tyranid lunged forward, jaws wide open to bite.

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For a human, unarmed, hand-to-hand combat with a similarly sized Tyranid would be best thought of as a quick method of suicide. Even a Space Marine would be in trouble without some form of weapon. Although, speaking technically, Unit 02 and the Trygon were at a comparatively similar scale, Asuka did have a few advantages even without any weapons. A few hundred tons worth of powered Eva-class armour to start with.

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As the Tygon's head shot forward, Asuka dropped the pretence of weakly struggling with the Tyranid's arms and clutched at the Tyranid's head. Ignoring the pain as the two talons stabbed through Unit 02's armour, Asuka grabbed the Tyranid's right shoulder with her left hand and used her right hand to clasp the left side of it's head. Then she pulled her arms back. Hard.

Unlike humans, Tyranid did not evolve the face as a signalling device. Asuka, however, was convinced that it had an expression of shock on it's face as it's head tore from it's body.

The Tygon's body crumpled to the ground, Asuka gasping at the dragging pain as the immense claws slid free from Unit 02's body. Turning her focus inwards, Asuka pushed at the angel-derived flesh, the S2 organ fuelling a rate of regeneration unmatchable even by the Tyranids.

As the wounds shrank, the edges almost flowing together, she pushed back to her feet and reached down for the discarded Vulcan bolter. There was still a war to win.

To be continued…

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**Gargoyles;** A variant of the 'gaunt' class of Tyranid organisms, the gargoyle is approximately human sized. In this variant, two of the usual six limbs have developed into leathery 'bat-wings', while the second pair of limbs forms into a bio-weapon, usually a fleshborer (close combat mutations are very uncommon within this sub-species). As with most smaller Tyranid, the last two limbs have atrophied and hold little or no combat or manipulatory capabilities.

**Melta (Titan variant);** Broadly similar to the more common human scale variant, a Titan can occasionally mount a multi-melta weapon arm. This is fairly uncommon; although highly destructive when fired, the support mechanisms required to support the weapon take up considerable space within the Titan's structure, and tend to be exceedingly short-ranged. Most Princeps prefer either a longer-ranged, if weaker, weapon. If short-ranged weaponry is needed, most Princeps prefer the immense strength of a power/chain fist mount.

**Grox;** A large, horse-sized lizard, the Grox is presumably one of the first non-Earh species discovered by humanity. Exceedingly nutritious, Grox were bred in huge numbers, and now form the main farming animal on four out of every five agri-worlds.


	10. Chapter 9

GaleBread; Thanks

I literally finished my first exam yesterday, and it seemed to go quite well. As a form of celebration, I'm posting this chapter up. I hope you enjoy it.

As you, no doubt, already know, I have started a second side story; Metal Storm. I intend to alternate between the two, chapter for chapter. I will try to keep the time between chapters short, but it'll probably be a month before the next chapter for _this_ story. Still, I'll try to get the next chapter of Metal storm up within a couple of weeks, so I hope that'll make up for it.

**GaleBread; **Thanks, I don't like leaving too much time between chapters, but sometimes real life just makes it impossible to give the important stuff it's due consideration. As I have done throughout the series, when I reach the end, I'll go back over the chapters, and adjust them with respect to the various messages I've received, so I will fix the spelling. Eventually.

**nick2951;** Well, Shinji's getting stuck in here. I hope you enjoy it.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be used as bait to ambush a Dark Eldar slaving party.

_They use the Evangelion? Those Mon'keigh fools! They know not what they play with!_

Unknown Eldar Farseer, (attributed)

**Chapter 9**

The rockcrete of the city's background transit road cracked, fractures spreading out from every footstep as Shinji tore down the highway at speeds even a Land Speeder would be hard-pressed to match. Spotting the end of the road ahead, Shinji tensed… and leaped high, clearing the top of the nearest skyscrapers as he passed over the district and the rapidly assembled fortifications at the cities edge, before slamming to the ground hard enough to sink into the fertile soil nearly up to Unit 01's shins.

"Nice entrance, Shinji," Asuka said, sardonically, spraying a fleeing swarm with a last blast of 150mm shells before turning to face him. "What are you going to do for an encore?"

"Are you alright?" Shinji half-shouted, fists instinctively clenching as he took in the rents in her red armour.

"It was a bit painful," Asuka admitted, glancing down at the Evangelion's battered chest plates, "but I regenerated it, so yeah, I'm fine. Gotta' love these S2 organs."

"Yeah," Shinji agreed, relaxing slightly, "I always found it useful myself. Mostly. Anyway…" He walked over, unslinging one of the cannons from his back. "It sounds like we're getting hit by more Bio-titans then normal for a Tyranid attack, so I doubled back to grab this for you."

"Is that…a melta?" she asked, taking the bulky weapon and hefting it thoughtfully. "I thought there was a problem with these; thermal dispersion, or something."

"The Tech-priests say they've fixed it," Shinji replied, shrugging as he pulled a second melta from his back, where the holstered form of the Lancea Longinus also rested. "I haven't tested it yet."

-Pilot Ikari?- the vox hissed, as a second comm. window opened on the view-screen.

"Unit 01 here," Shinji replied, turning his attention away from Asuka.

-We're just putting you through to Magi Organti for orders, hold one-

--

+WE WANT YOU TO SPLIT UP+ Orgenti said into the vox, watching the flow of the next Tyranid wave as it approached the city. +UNIT 01, HEAD TO REFERENCE POINT 04-320, UNIT 02 HEAD TO 04-370+

The Tech-priest listened to the acknowledgements, before handing the channel back to one of the vox. monitors in the room.

+THAT SHOULD LEAVE THEM CLOSE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER IN A SERIOUS PROBLEM, AND FAR APART ENOUGH TO PROPERLY ANCHOR THE FAR SIDE OF THE CITY+ he commented, turning back to Thorne as the Evangelions' symbols started to move apart on the hologram.

"Good," Thorne nodded, before lowering his voice. "And… what of the other problem?"

+I SENT OUT A PAIR OF HELLHOUNDS WITH SUPPORT+ Organti replied, also lowering the output of his voxponder. +THEY INCINERATED ALL TRACES OF EVA FLUIDS AND FLESH AT THE SCENE. THE HIVE FLEET WON'T OBTAIN EVANGELION DNA FROM _THAT_ SOURCE+

"Good," Thorne nodded, before leaning in and lowering his voice further. "What about the Evas themselves?"

+WE REMOVED THE EMERGENCY SUICIDE CHARGES FROM THEM, AND MANAGED TO FIT IN A PAIR OF FUSION WARHEADS THAT WERE STRIPPED FROM A TORPEDO OFF THE _CALM AND COOPERATIVE_. IF ONE OR BOTH OF THEM FALL, THE WARHEADS WILL VAPORISE THE CORPSE, LEAVING NOTHING FOR THE TYRANID HIVE SHIPS+

"Good," Thorne muttered, standing back and returning his attention to the displays. "The last thing we need right now is for the Tyranid to start using AT fields, S2 cores or any of the other Evangelion abilities."

--

"So…" Shinji began as he drew to a halt and hefted his gun, "what was it like?"

"Fighting one of the Tyranid?" Asuka asked. "Not present. Hold on, I'll open up the mind-link and show you." Shinji winced, and closed his eyes.

It wasn't that he had any problem with partially merging his mind with Asuka, Kyoko or Unit 02 (not that he'd be suicidal enough to say so if he had had a problem). The time together after 3rd Impact would have been much worse if that'd been a problem. And it was safe to say that this technique was fairly common in the Legion Titanicus, with Princeps exchanging messages, tactical briefings and discussions, and even memories and sensor data using it.

But to Shinji, extending the Mind-Impulse link through a high-density vox-signal felt like pushing his mind into the transmission, and if something went wrong, he'd be left there hanging in the radio waves forever.

He almost felt relieved as he felt the cautious, spidery edge of Asuka's mind, and they began to weave with his own consciousness. The memory transfer was over in less then a second, Shinji feeling the ground shaking underfoot as the serpentine monster shot forward, the gut-twisting thud as it slammed into his/her AT field

_Fast and vicious_, Shinji thought, and then, reconsidering the later part of the memory, _and smart._

_Yes,_ Asuka agreed as the mind-link began to peel apart. _I looked into it's eyes before it died, and anybody dismissing these things as animals, was talking out of their arse._

_We have our own advantages,_ Shinji pointed out. _Still…we'll have to be careful. Nice trick with fooling it and taking the head off, though._

"Yeah," Asuka replied audibly as the link separated, before chuckling. "Heh, do you think Thorne would mind if I had it's head mounted on the bulkhead of the main Titan bay on the _Warrior's Chariot?"_

Shinji merely rolled his eyes silently at the comm. screen.

--

"Move it out" Sargent Carmeron hissed, gesturing to his squad as they slipped out from the hedge and into one of the agri-fields surrounding the city.

"We shouldn't be here, sarge," trooper Gus hissed, lasgun shaking in his tightly clenched hands.

"We have our orders, trooper," Carmeron replied grimly, glaring at him. "Scout out in front of the lines, report any Xenos sighting and engage any foe you could conceivably defeat. That is a vital role, and those aren't suicide orders. Throne… we've handled xenos before. Remember those Eldar pirates three years ago?"

"But these are _Tyranids_, sarge! You've heard the stories too! Even the _Astartes_ can only barely stand against them!"

"We've all heard stories, trooper," Carmeron growled. "You know that most of them are false or glorified. And I promise you; those of the Tyranid are no more true then that stupid, heretical tale claiming that the traitors of Chaos once set foot on Holy Terra. You're a soldier in the PDF, Gus. Act like it."

Carmeron turned his attention back to the light, sweetberry bushes around them and the silent curses he aimed at them and the lack of decent cover the agri-fields provided.

"Contact!" came the scream Carmeron was dreading. He spun, taking in the situation in a glance.

"Rogue hormagaunt swarm!" he snapped, "find cover and take aim! Jack, open fire!" Carmeron ran for the dubious nearby cover of a bush as the crack of grenades started in the background. Bringing his pistol up to cover the stragglers, He watched the swarm carefully. _Still some distance, but closing fast_, he thought grimly. _Should be in range round about… Now!_

"Open fire!" he shouted, blasting away with his laspistol.

The air quickly began to fill with the red streaks of las-shots. The talyoned beasts ran through the firestorm, unharmed at first, but as they grew closer and the PDF troopers began to get their eye in, they began to fall. Carmeron blasted one and watched it fall, gut shot, and bring down a second which fell to more las-fire before it could struggle to it's feet. The four on the left literally came apart as a frag bounced off one of them. Another slumped sideways and collapsed into a bush, twitching as it covered the plant with it's fluids.

Carmeron blinked in shock as he realised there was only a couple left. Despite all of his words to the men, the idea of going up against the Tyranids had left a deep chill of fear in his belly. _Looks like the briefing slates were right about our range advantage after all_, he thought, bringing his sword up as the remaining 'gaunts approached. One of them suddenly crouched and leaped.

Carmeron didn't stop to think, he simply twisted, and bought his chainsword round. It wasn't one of the measured strokes of the trained officers, or the flashy, morale-raising attacks of the Commissars. It was a simple, crude blow that embedded the whirling teeth of the blade halfway into the beast's chest. It snapped at his face, before finally sagged in death.

The last hormagaunt seemed to cower, and then spin and run for the trees. Carmeron dropped the sword, raised his pistol and carefully aimed. The shot went into the back of it's head, splattering it and sending the creature spinning head over heals into the dirt.

"Bloody hell," one of the troopers hissed.

"There we go," Carmeron said loudly, placing a boot on the hormagaunt's chest and wrenching his chainblade loose. "Those are the Tyranid. Dangerous, yes. Monsters, yes. Blasphemous Xenos, yes. But they're not invulnerable daemons. We're disciplined, well armed, well trained. We're the damned PDF, and we're going to push these fragin' aliens _off_ our world, right!"

The troopers in the squad let out a group cheer. It was a bit half-hearted, but it sounded better then anything they had said or shown since the sky had darkened with the constant flow of mynotic spores.

Carmeron grinned and began to push his way through the bushes, when The sky shattered above him. A ball of fire tore it's way down through the clouds, the shockwave of it's passage tearing up trees and scattering the squad to the ground.

It hit.

Carmeron fought to hold onto the ground, and failed as it seemed to drop away from him, before changing direction and slamming back into him with enough force to steal the breath from his lungs. Grabbing onto a nearby bush, which was barely holding onto the ground itself, he clung to the ground desperately as the shockwaves tried to fling him about.

--

Shinji blinked as a fireball, larger then the rest shot by overhead and into the agri-lands. The shockwaves passed quickly, Shinji riding them with the instinctive ease of someone who has been through more then half-a-dozen drop-pod assaults and quite a few tons of Evangelion and armour as a stabiliser.

As the shockwaves, weakened by distance, faded, Shinji tripped the vox.

"HQ," he said, eying the enhanced image as the plume of dirt in the distance began to settle. "There's been a large impact nearby; larger then anything I've seen before."

-We know- came the reply. -We anticipate either a bio-titan or a full swarm. We did have a recon team in the area, but not surprisingly, we've lost contact with them. You're authorised to investigate and engage if it's a threat, but the Tyranids have used diversionary tactics before. Do not allow yourself to be pulled out of position until you are convinced it's not a trick-

"Understood," Shinji nodded, breaking out into the deceptively slow-looking, mile-eating run common to all Evangelions.

--

As the shaking finally faded into the distance, Carmeron finally released his death-grip on the battered bush. His body ached wherever it had hit something, which seemed to be everywhere. As the stunned surprise at his survival faded, his training took over. Painfully, he pushed himself up on his elbows and tested various muscles groups. There didn't seem to be any broken bones, just a dull ache, like a full body hangover the morning after.

Cautiously, he managed to twist his body round and push himself into a sitting position, the soil on his back (that had been thrown into the air by the impact), pouring off onto the ground. He still had his pistol, though the holder seemed half torn from his belt, but the chainsword had vanished, lost somewhere in the debris.

The rest of the squad was scattered around him, either lying groaning on the ground, or weakly pulling their way out of tangles of vegetation. Carmeron winced as he spotted Davis, a loose tree branch had stabbed through his chest and pinned him to the ground as neatly as a colourful flutter-bug to a collection book's page. Forcing the rising bile back down his throat, he raised his gaze further, searching for the fireball that took Davis' life. His breath caught.

Several fields over a blasphemous oval of flesh lay, smoking gently. Larger then a full hab-complex, it was a series of huge, building-sized blackened chitin plates held together by seared leathery muscle, cooked by it's passage through the atmosphere. It rippled slowly, as if it were breathing…or as if something inside it was pushing the skin out.

That sight did for Carmeron's pain and fuzzy thoughts, what several cups of re-caf did for a hangover.

"Up!" he screamed, "Up now! Find cover, quick!"

The squad started to struggle to their feet, a struggle that became much faster as the troopers caught sight of the monstrosity in the near distance. Carmeron climbed to his own feet, and sprinted towards the nearest cover, a shallow hole torn in the ground by the impact, ignoring the pain shooting up and down the backs of his legs.

There was a tearing noise, like some giant tearing apart the largest phone book in the world. The giant ball of flesh and chitin came apart, something squirming out like a monstrous parody of a chick hatching from an egg.

"Sarge!" Carmeron turned back, and realised that Gus was trapped, tangled in a couple of bushes and desperately struggling against them. Carmeron began to head back, and froze as a shadow fell over the field.

An immense Tyranid, shaped vaguely like a four-legged spider stood over them, looking at the city in the distance. Then it seemed to start, before looking down, apparently attracted by Gus' frantic movements. As it's hot breath, surprisingly clear of stink, washed over the field Carmeron saw Gus freeze in fear. For a moment, the monster seemed to watch him, an almost curious expression on its face. Then it lunged. A chunk of ground, several bushes and the figure of Gus vanished into the abomination's jaws.

Screaming in anger Carmeron opened fire, aiming desperately for the eye. He heard several others open up as well, a firestorm of red las-blasts reaching for the Tyranid's eye, which didn't even bother to blink under the impact.

It crouched, readying itself to pounce.

Then a blast of heat, with a sound like the roar of a God, flew by overhead and threw the monster to the ground.

--

Shinji winced as the back wash of the melta flowed over him, much like opening an oven to check a roast. The bright flash of the melta, automatically dimmed by the Eva's electronics, reached out and flung the beast into the ground. The Tyranid_, a Hierophant_, Yui whispered into the back of his mind, spasmed under the pain as a slab of chitin flowed off it's back and splattered to the ground.

Shinji brought the gun round, carefully picking out a kill-shot to put the monster down.

The Hierophant leaped to it's clawed feet, fast as the spider it resembled. The blast of super-heated air missed, gouging a deep trench in the ground.

Cursing silently, Shinji moved, trying to bring the melta round for another shot. The Hierophant got there first, the muscles in the bio-rifles clutched under it's belly convulsing as muscular spasms flung clusters of unnaturally sharp chitin-spines at him.

Shinji flung up his AT field, the orange barrier catching most of the three meter spines harmlessly, but slightly too slow for full effectiveness; resulting in several spines digging deep into Unit 01's armour, before shattering and leaking their loads of genehanced acids and toxins into the cracks they'd made.

Ignoring the pain, which felt as though a few dozen soldier ants had bitten into his chest, Shinji focused and _threw_ his AT field outwards. The Tyranid leaped aside, but was only partly successful, the 2D energy field throwing up a wave of soil and plants as it clipped the beast, spinning it to the ground. As the Hierophant clawed back to its feet, Shinji fired the melta again, the super-heated blast of air screaming out and scouring a deep groove along the monster's back.

The Hierophant roared, and charged, earth showering up as the claws dug at the ground. It slammed into unit 01 before Shinji could react, biting down on his arm, sending the melta flying and slamming him into the ground.

Shinji hissed in sympathetic pain as the armour began to fracture under the incredible power of the beast's jaws. He shifted his feet under him and braced, pulling on his arm _hard_.

The Hierophant, startled, staggered froward and Shinji found himself face-to-face with it's nemesis, Unit 01's horn resting against it's forehead. For a second, Shinji stared into it's eyes, lit by the faint glow of bio-plasma as the startled creature tried to attack, and something inside him quivered in fear at that dead gaze.

He rolled back, curving his legs under it's belly, and kicked out hard. The monster screeched as it flew up into the air, before slamming down into the ground with enough force to feel like a Tokyo earthquake.

As the creature hit, Shinji reached round to his back and snatched the Lancea Longinus from it's holster and flung it, overarm. Unit 01's targeting computers took over even as he pulled it out, complex algorithms turning his simple urge to throw the spear into a pin-point trajectory, took control of the fibre-muscles built into the Eva's armour, and guided his arm round as he flung the lance.

The red spear tore into the Hierophant's body as it struggled to it's feet, tearing in just above it's head and slicing through it's abdomen until the blades slid out of the chitin plates on it's back, the shaft wedged solid in the biological war machine. With a gargling scream, the monster's limbs buckled, dropping the Hierophant to the ground. It convulsed as it fell, throwing fountains of dirt and vegetation around in it's death throes.

Finally, it fell silent.

Climbing to his feet, Shinji carefully walked forward, nudging the beast's head with a foot. When it failed to move, he carefully placed a foot on the creature for leverage, grabbed the shaft of the Lancea Longinus, and pulled it clear of the beast with an unpleasant sucking sound, speeder-sized organs spilling out onto the ground.

Fighting down the urge to puke, Shinji tripped the vox.

"Command, target was a Hierophant," he muttered, trembling slightly as he turned back to the city. "It's dead. I'm…I'm heading back to 04-320."

-Understood pilot- came the reply. -Good work. Be advised that a pair of Warlords will be meeting you in ten minutes-

"Right," Shinji muttered, picking up pace to a run, although he was unsure whether he was running towards the defence point…or away from the corpse behind him.

--

The corpse of the immense monster hit the ground with a bone-rattling thud. Within their cover in a hollow in the ground, nothing moved.

"Golden Throne," one of the soldiers finally hissed as the immense God-Machine retreated its weapon, turned and strode off.

"Right, then," Carmeron growled, doing a surprisingly good impression of having _not_ just been blindly staring like a drugged out juvie, "forget the techno-magics of the Cog-boys; some of those monsters might carry smaller ones, like humans and blood-ticks or something. Jack, Carter, David, cover us. The rest of you, form up. We'll give that thing a quick check over, and then fall back to ref. 04-367."

_Bloody Hell,_ Carmeron thought to himself, staring up at the mound of flesh as the troopers split up. _How can we fight something like this…_ He stopped, silently berating himself for the minor blasphemy. _The fragging thing is dead. This…abomination can be killed, so the rest can be too…_

"Sarge!" Quinn called, interrupting his train of thought. "You ain't gonna' _believe_ this."

Carmeron walked towards him, raising an eyebrow… and slowed to a stop. He stared in bemused surprise. One of the Tyranids teeth had a brown and green lump clinging to it, faintly murmuring, "The emperor protects" over and over again.

"Gus," he muttered to himself, shaking his head as a couple of troopers carefully peeled the traumatised soldier from his death-grip on the over-sized fang, "you are the _luckiest_ son-of-a-grox on the _planet_."

To be continued…

--

**Hellhounds;** Based around a Chimara chassis, the Hellhound mounts an extra large heavy flamer and enough fuel to allow several hours of constant usage. Regarded as one of the least pleasant vehicles of the Imperium (both because the unpleasant way it kills, and because the externally mounted fuel tanks make the Hellhound more vulnerable to enemy weaponry), it has proven extremely useful against weaker armed foes.

**Hormagaunt; **A subspecies of the Gaunt genus, the Hormagaunt resembles most other gaunts; roughly human-sized, two motive legs, two atrophied, useless limbs, think chitin armour and animal-level intelligence when away from a synapse creature. Instead of any form of bio-weapon, however, the forward two limbs instead sprout a pair of razor-sharp talons, and the muscles of the creature are up to ten percent denser then usual. Harmless at range, the Hormagaunt is engineered for close combat.

**Hierophant; **One of the most dangerous and largest Bio-titan, the Hierophant resembles a four-legged spider with an elongated body (the front of which remains close to the ground, while the abdomen slopes up into the air). Heavily covered with thick armour, armed with a pair of heavy spike rifles, immense jaws and adjacent talons, and one of the many species capable of spitting bio-plasma, the Hierophant is one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy. It is also the first of the bio-Titans officially encountered by the Imperium, a Hierophant being present at the battle of the Northern defence fortress and being responsible of the mutual destruction of itself and at least one Warlord-class Titan.

**Juvie; **Juvenile. Usually refers to a child or teenager. The actual definition tends to alter depending on status and location; in poor or low technology areas (agri/feral worlds, hive slums, etc) this seems to refer to anyone under the age of fifteen to sixteen. In the richer areas, where re-juv treatments are readily available and the average lifespan approaches multiple centuries, this definition can extend clear into the late twenties or even early thirties.


	11. Chapter 10

Sorry for being late in updating, but first my laptop had to go in for repairs to the CD/DVD drive, and then I had to start packing up to move house. I intended this to be the last chapter, but I couldn't fit in everything I wanted without making the chapter too packed. Oh well.

**Yoshomo;** I'm glad you enjoyed it, even of it's taken a little longer to update then I intended. The exams were the last ones of my undergrad curse, so big relief there.

**Oirarana;** I was a little worried that that scene might be a little too much, so I'm glad to hear people liked it.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be conscripted to the 13th Penal Regiment.

_Sisters! The Emperor's blessed warriors have arrived to aid us!_

Canoness Liotian

Referring to the arrival of Inquisition task force EVA during the Thymine Massacre

**Chapter 10**

Interrogator-Captain Arkland dropped the last damage report onto the desk, and sighed, staring silently out into the night. The _Hot Needle of Enquiry_, _Calm and Cooperative_ and _Forthright Gaze_ were still stranded deep in space, some distance away from the planet by the Tyranid ship. The Tyranid had, themselves, also been forced away from the planet, when Sky Command had risen above the horizon again.

Still capable of throwing out incredible amounts of fire power despite the damage take in the initial attack, the battle station had forced a temporary peace, the Tyranid not willing to run the gauntlet of it's fire when it would most likely be torn apart by the atmosphere within a handful of days.

Shaking his head, he stretched and turned to pour a fresh cup of recaf, only to pause as his vox. hissed into life.

"Captain Arkland to the bridge," it crackled.

"Now what?" Arkland muttered, before reaching over and pressing the transmit rune. "I'm on my way," he said, before climbing to his feet.

The captain's quarters were purposefully near to the bridge, so it was only a couple of minutes before Arkland strode into the _Needle_'s bridge, dodging around one of the ever-present naval security teams.

"Report," he snapped, stepping up to the command podium.

"We've picked up something strange on the sensorium, sir," the exec replied bluntly, gesturing for Arkland to follow him into the sensorium annex. "The Hive fleet seems to be grouping in two spots outside of Sky Command's range."

"I see," Arkland said, glancing down at one of the flickering pict. screens. "Do we have any idea why?"

"Well sir," the sensorium Lieutenant replied, taking over, "they have descended to just outside the atmosphere, and we can just pick up something that looks like a stream of objects heading towards the planet. I think they're releasing more spores, preparing for a two-pronged attack."

"I see," Arkland muttered, shaking his head. "Good work, Lieutenant. I'll contact the ground, so download this data to a slate for vox. transmission."

"Ah, sir?" the Lieutenant interrupted before Arkland could leave the annex. "There's something else…."

"Well?" Arkland said, turning back with a hint of impatience.

"Well… with the damage we've taken, we've lost a lot of resolution in our instruments. To actually _see_ the spores at this range… They have to be big. Mid-level Titan-scale, at least."

"Ah…Throne," Arkland groaned, before leaving the annex and making a hurried bee-line for the vox. station.

--

+IT'S CONFIRMED+ Orgenati said, shaking his head with a whine of servos as he looked up from a console. +PDF RECON ELEMENTS REPORT THAT THE TYRANID HAVE ASSEMBLED TWO DROP ZONES, AND ARE DEPOSITING A LARGE NUMBER OF BIO-TITANS AT BOTH. THEY AREN'T MOVING YET EITHER, THE HIVE MIND SEEMS TO BE ASSEMBLING A 'KNOCK-OUT BLOW' RATHER THEN THE CONSTANT STREAM OF LOWER-LEVEL THREATS THAT WE'VE BEEN HANDLING SO FAR+

"What about an intercept?" Captain Yartius asked, studying the fuzzy tactical hologram. "If we intercept them short of the city…"

"Not a great move," Thorne said, shaking his head. "The swarms are too large. To destroy one of these attacks would take the majority of our Titans, so if we split our forces evenly, neither will be strong enough to halt the Tyranid."

+ON THE OTHER HAND+ Orgenati added, +IF WE SEND ALL OUR FORCES AGAINST A SINGLE SWARM, IT WILL BE DESTROYED, BUT THE OTHER WILL REACH THE CITY BEFORE THE TITANS CAN REDEPLOY. IT'S THE KIND OF LOGIC PROBLEM THAT JUVIE ENGINSEERS ONCE USED TO BURN OUT LOW-LEVEL COGNITORS DURING RAG WEEK+

"Yes…" Thorne hummed, before a frown creased his forehead. "Wait. I thought the Mechanicus treated such incidences with capital punishment."

+I SAID _ONCE_+ Orgenati replied, slightly more flatter then usual. Thorne pondered this for a second, and then shrugged.

"Well, anyway," he muttered. "It seems that we need to buy time…"

--

-…So, we've come up with a, somewhat risky, plan,- Thorne's image said, floating in Unit 02's entry plug. -Collectively, the Legio Titanicus units can defeat one of the two forces by themselves… but that would leave the other uncontested. So…- Thorne took a deep breath. -…we want you two to hold up the northern prong of the Tyranid assault while the Titans destroy the western attack.-

"I'm sorry," Asuka said, sticking a finger in her left ear and wiggling it about for a second. "Could you repeat that? It _sounded_ like you said that you wanted us to take on a entire Tyranid bio-titan swarm by ourselves."

+THAT WOULD BE A… PARTIALLY ACCURATE SUMMATION+ Orgenati confirmed. +WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO ACTUALLY ATTEMPT TO DESTROY THE TYRANIDS, JUST DELAY THEM UNTIL THE TITANS' DESTROY THE OTHER FORCE AND MOVE TO SUPPORT YOU+

"How do we do that?" Shinji asked, his image frowning in thought.

"Good question," Asuka agreed. "I mean, smearing our Evangelions with a megagallon of barbeque sauce and carrying 'All You Can Eat' signs isn't exactly what I had in mind when I joined up."

+WITH THE THUNDER CANNONS, YOU CAN ATTACK THE SWARM FROM BEYOND THEIR RANGE+ Orgenati replied, ignoring the sarcasm, +FORCING THEM TO EITHER GO TO GROUND, OR CHARGE TOWARDS YOU, IN WHICH CASE YOU CAN FALL BACK AND DRAW THEM AWAY FROM THE CITY+

Asuka glanced over at Shinji, who shrugged.

"Well," she muttered, slouching back in the seat, "I guess it should work."

--

"Okay…" Shinji hissed from his position, lying prone on the hilltop carefully aiming a Thunder Cannon downhill in the general direction of a swarm of more then twenty biotitans moving past towards the city. "Unit 01 to Command," he whispered, activating the vox. "I'm in a flanking position, ready to attack."

"Unit 02," Asuka added from the next hill over. "I'm also in position, I have good shot from here."

-Good work- came the reply. -Hold position, the Titans will begin their assault in ten minutes…mark." Shinji tapped a control, causing a ten-minute timer to flick into existence in sync with the voice. -As soon as the Titans attack, open fire-

"Yes, sir," Shinji replied, activating the long-range targeting system, and fighting off a momentary bout of claustrophobia as it unfolded and descended over his head. The screen flickered to life, the best computers NERV could build immediately providing targeting data on all of the biotitans onscreen.

Shinji found himself swallowing nervously as he studied the monsters as they strode past. Survivor of the Angel wars, and veteran of over a dozen conflicts with Chaos he may have been, but there was just something about the Tyranid that scared him on a more fundamental part of his mind. And he'd seen too many other people react in the same way to think that his reaction was unique.

A warm rush flooded through the mind impulse link from inside the Eva. Shinji felt his heart rate settle a little, and smiled slightly, sending a burst of gratitude back though the link.

_Thanks Mother_, he thought, before letting his fingers rest lightly on the triggers as the timer dropped towards zero. _All right, let's go…_

--

Princeps Dorlian grinned in anticipation as the foe came into _Might of Mars_'s sensorium. Nearly a dozen heavily armoured Hierodules lead the swarm, with other, more esoteric bio-morphs behind.

"Moderati, bring all weapons to full readiness and activate the voids," Dorlian snapped, "Tactical, organise targeting solutions and assign them to the squad. Brothers…" he paused, sharing in the ancient Titan's pleasure at the tension before the storm.

"…burn them all."

--

Shinji squeezed the trigger, the Thunder Cannon's high-energy blast tearing into the side of the Tyranid force and ripping his target apart. A second blast from Asuka's direction blotted a Harridan from the sky and the swarm scattered, the monsters searching for what meagre cover a twenty-story bioweapon _could_ use.

"Come on," Shinji muttered, the Thunder Cannon vibrating as it recharged from the backpack capacitors, and those whined as they recharged themselves from the excess energy of his S2 organ.

The targeting icon on his screen flickered from red to yellow, and Shinji focussed on the distant swarm. A target flickered into his sights; a Trygon speeding for a nearby forest. Shinji pulled the trigger, watching with a sick feeling in his stomach as the creature's torso detonated, the super-heated organs shattering the chitin carapace into fragments that tore several stunned gargoyles from the sky. The targeting icon flickered back to red as the recharge cycle began.

"Shinji, we've been flanked!" Asuka shouted over the vox. Shinji spun over instinctively, hearing a thump from the ground beside him as he rolled. The targeting systems folded back into the entry plug, only to reveal a hulking bio-titan squatting next to him.

It lunged straight for him. In an instinctive panic, Shinji desperately blocked with the Thunder Cannon, two massive talons ripping into it and wedging in the potent weapon in a spray of sparks.

Shinji pushed out, throwing the monster back and tearing the wrecked cannon from it's cabling. The Tyranid stumbled back, tearing it's talons loose in a spray of metal and electricity. As the Tyranid lunged again Shinji snatched the plasma pistol from his shoulder mount, bringing it up and firing point blank into the abomination's mouth. The biotitan's head detonated, it's body slumping as the Hive Mind retreated from it's nervous system.

Shinji glanced around, and gulped. As he and Asuka had been sniping at the obvious swarm, several biotitans had apparently managed to circle around behind them.

"Oh, boy," Shinji gulped, dumping the capacitors and snatching up the Lance from the ground where he'd left it. "This'll be… interesting."

--

"Inquisitor Thorne?"

Thorne started, looking up from the Tactical display in anger.

"I beg your pardon, my Lord," the stranger, dressed in the armour of an arbites and wearing an ornate helm topped by a stylised, golden aquilia. "I am Marshal Halbite, master of the Arbites on this world. I apologise for startling you, but given the critical stage of the war, I felt I should come offer my services in person rather then by proxy."

"Marshal Halbite," Thorne said in annoyance, "while I would be more then happy to talk with you under other conditions, we are, as you said, presently managing a critical stage of the war. Hence, I must ask you…"

+MY LORDS!+ a Tech-priest called out from the Vox. station, +WE'VE RECEIVED A SIGNAL FROM DEEP ORBIT. IT'S THE _DEVINE RIGHT_! BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC HAS ARRIVED!+

"What!?" Thorne gasped, spinning away from the Arbites Marshal, "Confirm that!"

+IT'S CONFIRMED+ Orgenati agreed, looking over a repeater screen. +BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC HAS BEEN DRIFTING IN SYSTEM UNDER MINIMAL POWER. THEY'VE JUST LIT THEIR DRIVES, AND IF MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TACTICS IS ACCURATE, THEY ARE ENDEAVOURING TO CAPTURE THE MAJORITY OF THE XENOGENS IN BETWEEN THEIR SHIPS AND SKY COMMAND+

"Quick," Thorne snapped, running over to the vox. station and snatching up the mike, "get me a line to Admiral Semper! Now!"

--

Tightbeam (ground-to-space) commstream generation (12/497.f).

Carrier-code Oscillate:27.3194.487. Priority-INQUI1. (1/31.a Datastream transmission only

Logging receipt…

Target receiving. (1/87c

INQUISITON CODE PRIMUS 7

GENERAL HAIL. Suspend comms-traffic for duration.

Channel sustained.

+Admiral Semper, this is Inquisitor Lord Thorne. I need you to…+

In,Inquisitor I, I'm just a Lieutenant!

+Emperor damned… Lieutenant, get me the Admiral+

Ye,Yes sir!

…

This is Admiral Semper

+I'm Inquisitor Lord Thorne, authorisation AUTOMATICALLY EDITED FROM RECORD+

…Checks out, hold one… We're secure. What do you need Inquisitor, but hurry, we're barely minutes from contact

+Two swarms of biotitans are advancing on the capital. The Adaptus Mechanicus Titans are destroying the western force, but the northern swarm is only being contested by two units. We need a single cruiser to bombard the site from orbit+

…I see. What of the units in the area?

+So long as the bombardment is spread and not a focused strike, they should be able to take the damage with minimal effect+

The _Throne's Wrath_ has plasma-based weapon batteries. I'll split it off and send it before we hit the main force

+Thanks, I'm attaching the coordinates to the pict. stream. Good luck, hopefully we'll be able to meet in person soon+

--

"Right, I've organised a high-yield orbital bombardment on target alpha," Thorne said, setting down the vox. "With their AT fields up, they should be safe, yes?"

+INDEED, A BOMBARDMENT WOULD SPREAD OUT, NOT ACT AS A FOCUSED BLOW THAT COULD PIERCE AN AT FIELD. THE EVA GRADE ARMOUR SHOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE FORCES INVOLVED, SO LONG AS THEIR AT FIELDS ARE UP AND THE ARMOUR DOES NOT TAKE A DIRECT HIT. I'D BETTER WARN THEM+ Orgenati turned away, about to order a channel opened.

The roar of a shotgun sounded instead.

--

"Damn it," Shinji shouted as he impaled a Tyranid on the Lance, "It's like fighting the Angels all over again."

A sudden blast of psychic energy blasted into and through the AT field, throwing the immense Evangelion into the ground. Looking up, Shinji spotted a bio-titan, psychic energy flickering around it's withered limbs and allowing it to drift slowly forward through the air.

"Oh, COME _ON_!" Shinji snarled, propping himself up and blasting the floating monster with his plasma pistol. The plasma blasts flared off some kind of psychic shielding, the creature not even flinching. Energy coursed over it's carapace, coalescing into a single point in front of it.

"What's got you in a such a mood," Asuka asked, throwing the top half of a Hierophant in front of the Malanthrope, right before the psychic blast fired, absorbing the blast in a detonation of roasted flesh.

"You did see the reports on the 5th? Angel?" Shinji asked, snatching up the Lance and throwing it overarm right into the Malanthrope, which collapsed to the ground, trees igniting in a flare of randomised psychic energy.

"I can see the irony," Asuka replied, pieces of a bio-titan flying from the hill she had vanished behind.

"It's not just that," Shinji muttered, shaking his head, "It's just… sometimes I feel as though I'm staring in one of the worst kind of horror films; the snuff film kind. Still, that's about par for the course since the 3rd Angel attacked way back when. I hardly expect the Universe to stop a winning formula _now_."

The vox. was silent for a moment, while Shinji retrieved the Lance from the biotitan's corpse. Unit 02 came over the hill at a run, the bright red of it's armour discoloured by dripping patches of the darker red of a Tyranid's internal fluids. Shinji raised his pistol, firing past the Eva. A biotitan reared in Asuka's wake, and slowed for a few vital seconds as the plasma burst on it's carapace.

"Thanks," Asuka gasped, sliding to a halt next to him.

"No problem," Shinji replied, wincing as the plasma pistol hissed with an overload and the cooling systems went into overdrive. "Listen… sorry. I just needed to vent a bit."

"Hah," Asuka chuckled good naturedly as she readied her axe to meet the charging Tyranid. "You picked one hell of a time to pour your heart out."

--

Orgenati found himself on the floor, without any real recollection of how he got there.

The statement, **Breach in spinal column**, rolled across his vision in dull red letters, followed by **All voluntary nerve control below junction 3 unavailable. Self-repair systems damaged. Some maintenance will be required.** Then his focus shifted as the form of Marshal Halbite walked into view.

+IT WAS YOU+ Orgenati accused flatly. +THE CULT LEADER SHINJI MENTIONED, THE ONE WE NEVER FOUND+

"Yes," Halbite hissed, glaring at the immobile Tech-priest. "I had already bought the light to the Arbites' medicae personnel, to spread the truth, and hide the hunters when the time came. Everything was so carefully prepared, especially after hearing the rummers of the return of the Evangelion… And it was you and yours that took him from us, stole him from the light."

+YOU KIDNAPPED HIM FIRST. BESIDES, GIVEN HIS HISTORY, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT EVEN WITH GENETIC IMPLANTS, HE MAY HAVE STILL REMAINED IMMUNE TO YOUR…DELUSIONS+

"Delusions? Hah! So superior," Halbite sneered, racking the shotgun. "You filled yourself with your blasphemous technologies, sealing yourself away from the natural order of the Universe…_willingly_! Well, your Navy will do the job for us. A shame, but with your Evangelions disposed of, you will lose the ability to slow this war. The hive-fathers will use that, and will consume all while you flounder around in this petty civil war. All that, could only be stopped by you, and I believe you will be dying soon."

+A CONCISE ANALYSIS, ACCURATE, EXCEPT FOR ONE FACTOID YOU HAVE YET TO ADD+

"Oh? And what's that?"

+YOUR 'HUNT' IS UNFINISHED+ Orgenati said flatly, as the sudden whine of a plasma pistol filled the room.

Halbite spun, and came face to face with Thorne. The Inquisitor was slumped up against the wall, one hand clasped against the wound in his abdomen with a mixture of blood and oil oozing through his fingers. But his other arm was steady, and the pistol in his hand didn't waver from Halbite's head.

"I am Inquisitor Lord Thorne, of the holy orders of the Ordos Malleus," Thorne growled between gritted teeth. "You know the Pax Imperius, Marshal, no Servant of the Emperor goes unavenged." Thorne's eyes met the Marshal's, which flinched as he saw an impeccable will beyond anything the animalistic Genestealer brood had ever managed to install in him. "And _no_ enemy of the Emperor goes unpunished."

The pistol discharged. The bright blue flare of plasma flew straight through the hybrid's head, leaving a hole through his brain large enough to fit a fist through, before impacting with one of the stained glass windows. The Mag-bottle failed, and the shot detonated with a roar that blew out every window in the room.

"Organti, are you alright?" Thorne gasped, dropping the recharging pistol and dropping to one knee.

+I'M STABLE, BUT FORGET ABOUT ME. THE BOMBARDMENT MUST BE ABOUT TO BEGIN, WARN THEM!+ Orgenati turned his head, following Thorne as he staggered over to the console and stabbed at the control runes.

"Damn it," he growled, slumping against the console, "I don't know the channel. I can't get through to warn them!"

+USE CHANNEL ALPHA-37, WITH I.F.F. CODE OMEGA-SEVEN-NINE-GAMMA+ Orgenati instructed. +IT'S THE OVERRIDE CHANNEL WE USED BACK ON NEMISIS TESSARA DURING THE REPAIRS AND UPGRADES+

"Right," Thorne muttered, pushing himself back up and tapping again at the controls.

"…ing-damn it! Die you monster!" Asuka's voice suddenly filled to room as the channel opened.

"Shinji, Asuka! No time, point your AT fields up, now!" Thorne shouted, grabbing the handset.

"Thorne?" came Shinji's voice, "wha…"

"_NOW!_" Thorne screamed.

Before any response could be heard through the vox, the sky visible through the shattered windows brightened with flaring lines of energy descending from the heavens. The horizon lit up with fire.

To be continued…

--

**Recaf; **'Reheated Caffine.' For all intents and purposes, coffee.

**Harridan; **A large, flying biotitan capable of bombarding troops from the air, and capable of carrying a swarm of gargoyles under it's wings.

**Malanthrope;** Derived from Zanthrope DNA. The Malanthrope is a powerful psychic biotitan, but it is usually not seen until the last stages of the consumption of a world. The Malanthrope seems to be vitally involved in this process, and is usually not seen in combat.

**Pax Imperius;** 'No Servant of the Emperor goes unavenged. No enemy of the Emperor escapes His judgement.'


	12. Chapter 11

Sorry it has taken so long to finish this, real life has been tough over the past several weeks. I wish I could say that it looks like its going to ease up, but that doesn't look likely.

**Yoshomo;** I know it's been a while, but hopefully the content will make up for it. Your proposal is interesting… But I'm not sure if they would be able to resist the massed call of Emperor-only-knows how many billions of Hive-ships there are in the universe. Even if the could, I doubt any use of this link would be anything better then short-term confusion in potential opposition. Though, I admit the thought of a loyalist hive fleet _is_ an attractive one…

**nick2951;** Yes, a _little_ singed… Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed the story so far, and I'm about done with this one now. Sorry it took so long to update.

**nased0;** Thanks! I've tried to stay in character, with the addition of a few thousand years of development (see Reborn Warriors), but I always worry that I'm not doing as good a job as I think.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be locked in the same room as a bored and lonely Slaanesh marine…

…I miss the Firewarrior's Guide to the Galaxy…

--

_That's _got_ to hurt…_

Pilot Nein, S&R 01

**Chapter 11**

Sargent Carmeron flexed his shoulders, trying to ignore the shuddering of the ornithopter as the aircraft buzzed it's way over the landscape.

The fact that the Imperial Fleet had arrived, and blasted the Tyranids away from the planet had been broadcasted over virtually every civilian frequency for the last few hours. With the last biotitans destroyed, the Tyranids had been reduced to a handful of leaderless swarms hiding out in the agri lands. Command had been exceedingly rapid in assigning squads of PDF and whatever Skitari that the Adaptus Mechanicus was willing to loan out, and even a few Arbites, to hunt down and destroy them before they could establish any kind of lair.

Carmeron had been sure that that would be his squad's next mission, but it turned out that different orders had been handed down.

-Sargent Carmeron?- his vox bead crackled, the message slightly distorted by the vibration. –This is the pilot. We're coming up on the cords, do you want to come up to the cockpit?-

"Understood," Carmeron said, climbing to his feet and snagging a railing. "I'll be right up." He glanced around at his suddenly alert squad. "Don't worry boys, the flyboys need me to hold their hands. We're approaching the dropzone, so now'd be an excellent chance for a last check."

"Right Sarge," came the reply, several soldiers already checking pockets and lasguns.

Suppressing a chuckle with the instinct of command, Carmeron walked forward, swaying with the aircrafts motion, and pulled himself through the hatch and into the pilot's cabin.

"…I repeat," the pilot was saying into the vox, "this is S&R 01, we are approaching the blast zone and are preparing to begin operations. Over."

-Roger that S&R 01. Be advised that we still have no vox. traffic from the area. Also… our AdMech visitors are very agitated. Tell your soldiers that they'd better find _something_ down there, even if it's only a few scraps of wreckage. Over and Out-  
"I guess you over heard that," the pilot said, glancing back as he hung the vox. tube back on the hook.

"Yeap," Carmeron nodded, grabbing the back of a seat and crouching to stare out of the window. "So, how bad is it?"

"Not sure yet," the pilot replied, shaking his head. "This area's pretty hilly, only the high altitude crops are grown up here. Though," he added, pulling back on the handle as the ground rose in front of them, "we should see it once we get past… this…hill…"

The pilot fell silent as the ornithopter cleared the hilltop, and area beyond came into view.

The area glowed. That was Carmeron's first impression, of a glare of light reflecting off the ground. As the aircraft gained hight, however, the focus of the reflection moved back, and the light faded.

The ground was glass. Acre after acre of black, smooth glass, as if the sun itself had descended to the ground for a moment, melting the rock and plants and soil into a smooth plain of black glass. With a faint curve to it, like the largest decorative plate in the world.

"Wow…" the pilot finely murmured, breaking through Carmeron's stunned shock. "Well… I feel a bit less significant now…" he continued quietly, resting a hand on the firing controls for the ornithopter's autocannons for a second.

"Right…" Carmeron said, trying to swallow a sudden blockage in his throat. "Right… Take us… on a sweep around the perimeter first, see if you can spot anything. Then take us to the coordinates of the last vox. signal, and set down. We'll spread out from there."

"Right," the pilot replied, turning back to his controls. "Hey, on the bright side, at least you won't find Tyranid down _there_."

--

"God-Emperor…"

"Damn…"

"Frag me…"

"I guess this is why the _I.I. Handbook_ warns against pissing off Navy officers…"

"All right," Carmeron interrupted, despite a virtually identical reaction to the rest of his squad. "You know the drill, fall out and form up."

Shaking off their surprise, they did so, hoping out of the aircraft and taking up decent covering positions despite the slippery smoothness of the still-warm glass.

"All right," Carmeron said, hopping down from the ornithopter and slapping the close hatch rune, "break into pairs and start searching. Keep your Auspexs out at all times and if it starts to beep, call it in."

"But, sarge," David said, shaking his head, "what is there to find? What could survive _this_?"

"What we might find, trooper," Carmeron growled, "is the same Titan that saved our lives yesterday and hopefully it's crew as well. Since there's nothing on the surface, then it may still be buried somewhere under this lot, and we are going to do our damned hardest to find it, _right?_"

"Sir, yes sir." Came the quick reply.

--

"Sarge, I've got something," Gus said, waving his auspex.

"What is it?" Carmeron asked, glancing around once more before turning his attention to the soldier.

"Dunno," Gus replied, squinting at the device, "some kind of big dot, and the words… 'motion tracker'?"

"Gus… you're reading me," Carmeron replied, rolling his eyes.

"I don't think so sarge, there's a tiny dot in your direction, but the big one's over there." He pointed out over the featureless plain.

"…I don't see anything," Gus began doubtfully, when the ground shuddered. "…but I damn well _feel_ it!" he finished, trying to catch his balance as cracks began to spread out over the flawless glass.

The ground shuddered again, an area in the near distance bludging up for a second. Carmeron's instinct screamed at him to move, but before he could do so, the ground exploded up, showering chunks of dirty glass into the air.

Carmeron leaped, slamming into a stunned Gus, knocking him aside as a chunk of glass smashed into the ground where he'd been standing.

"Eyes open lad," Carmeron muttered, "your luck's not going to protect you all the time."

Carmeron glanced up, before curling up again as a chuck of glass hit and shattered into a spray of shards as deadly as any frag grenade. A couple of impacts slid him and Gus across the glass as a pair of shards slammed into his flak jacket, and a third clipped his arm, drawing forth a quick curse.

The crashing noises started to fade rapidly, as gravity reclaimed the remaining pieces of petrified landscape.

Finally, Carmeron cautiously uncurled, pushing himself off Gus and coming to his feet. Shaking off the shock, he turned, absently clasping a hand to the wound on his arm.

The Titan _Evangelion_ loomed overhead. Unlike the last time Gus had seen it, the armour was mostly a dull metal, purple paint burned off by the intense heat except in an odd purple pattern on the chest and abdomen. A thin coat of glass still covered it's limbs, occasionally falling off, a piece at a time. Parts were missing too, the horn and one of the distinctive shoulder pylons torn free, leaving exposed, burned out electronics.

It glanced around, it's oddly human body language resembling caution, and let it's gaze fell, to rest on Carmeron for a second, before crouching back down into the pit it had made.

"…Gus," Carmeron said slowly, hauling the stupefied soldier to his feet.

"Ah, yeah, sarge?"

"Go find the vox. operator, would you. Tell him to contact HQ, and tell him we've located one of their Titans."

The crouching Titan stood up, helping a second Titan to it's feet. This one was just as unusually designed as the first, but was mostly unharmed, except for the backs of it's legs and arms where the print had again been burned off, and the metal slightly melted. In fact, that pattern helped Carmeron explain the odd paint pattern on the purple one; it had been lying on top of the second Titan, and the unexposed areas of paint had not been burned off.

"Correction, both Titans. Tell them crew capability and health unknown, but they are capable of movement."

"Right, sarge," Gus replied, backing away slowly before turning and running for Carter's distant form.

--

The fleet floated in the space beyond the transparasteel, the blasted remains of the Tyranid force surrounded on all sides and occasionally lighting up when a cruiser opened fire on a suspiciously twitching corpse.

Arkland watched the fleet quietly, the bridge bustling around them as damage-control gangs clambered around inside the_ Needle_'s shattered compartments and gutted systems.

With the arrival of the fleet, the Tyranid had been rapidly caught between two fires. The exhausted crew of the battered Sky Command, blood in their eyes and adrenaline in their veins, had blasted away at the distant Tyranids, filling the sky with massed amounts of long range firepower as every remaining torpedo and starfighter were fired, while Battlefleet Gothic had unleashed their, more restrained, firepower.

The Hive fleet had been gutted long before it came in range of any of the Imperials, and the Imperium had killed all of the bioships before any of them reach the outer system and the safety of the Warp, the battered _Forthright Gaze_ leading a swarm of light cruisers and escorts in pursuit of the few bioships splitting off to flee the Navy fleet.

Even before the Tyranid had been destroyed, Admiral Semper had split several escorts off, which had lashed themselves to the Ramilies Star Fort, slowly hauling it up out of the planet's gravity well and into a more-or-less stable orbit. It would be a slow process, but by the end of the ship-day, Sky Command would be a comfortable distance from the planet it was supposed to protect.

"Interrogator-Captain?" an ensign asked, throwing Arkland right off his train of thought.

"Yes, ah… Ensign?"

"The Astropathic Choir has finished receiving all of the messages that were blocked by the Shadow." He hesitated, before holding out a pair of dataslates. "These two were marked top priority. One is for you, the other is for Inquisitor-Lord Thorne."

"Thank you, ensign," Arkland replied, taking the slate and thumbing the gene-scanner. "Go about your business."

Arkland turned his attention back to the window while the slate's little cognitor whined away, comparing the blood sample with its record of his DNA. A final rattling clunk, followed by a quiet bell tone signalled the unlocking of the slate's contents and Arkland lifted it up to study the terse sentences displayed on it's screen.

"Warp-damn it," he muttered, bringing a hand up to rub his head in frustration, before turning to the comm.s station. "Lieutenant?" he called out, striding over to the nearest vox. transmitter. "I need a dedicated high security vox. line down to Inquisitor-Lord Thorne, as soon as possible."

--

"Good news, Organti." Thorne said tiredly as he limped into the base's apothecarian; his wounds had been bound, but Halbite's attack had left more important things to repair then his slightly battered augamentics. "The recon patrol has found Shinji and Asuka's Eva; both the pilots and the Evangelions are on their way back."

+GOOD+ Organti replied calmly, raising one of Thorne's eyebrows in mild surprise. +I ADMIT THAT I WAS GREATLY CONCERNED FOR BOTH OF THEM, EVEN WITH THE OMNISSIAH'S BLESSING ON THE WARMACHINES+

"Yes, I was… concerned for a while as well," Thorne admitted guardedly, not willing to allow an unavoidable chink to open in the Inquisition's image of all-knowing invincibility, even to a friend. "And," he hesitated, before gesturing towards the hybrid auto-surgeon/servitor-repair slab that Organti rested on, "doesn't that… hurt?"

Organti glanced down, where several armatures held the various parts of his lower body suspended apart from each other, connected only by a web of wires and a few strands of faux-flesh.

+IT'S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT; ALL RELEVENT SENSOR NETS ARE OFFLINE. AND YOU KNOW HOW IT IS; YOU HAVE TO HALF DISASSEMBLE IT JUST TO REACH A SINGLE BURNED-OUT WIRE+ Organti's shoulders shifted in a mechanical approximation of a shrug. +I'LL BE FINISHED IN 1.7 HOURS. ONCE THE EVAS ARRIVE IN…+

"Probably three or four hours," Thorne replied to Organti's unasked question. "They seem to have got off mostly intact, but there aren't any available air units large or powerful enough to get them back, 'cept for the Warrior's Chariot and it'd be a bit stupid to shift a multi megaton starship out to pick up two ambulatory units, especially since it'd take a full day to get there and back safely."

+INDEED. ANYWAY, ONCE WE GET THE EVANGELIONS IN AND DO A FULL SYSTEM ANALYSIS, WE CAN START PACKING UP THE UNREQUIRED PARTS OF THIS FACILITY. I IMAGINE THAT THE IMPERIUM NEEDS US ELSEWHERE ALREADY+

"Yes," Thorne agreed sourly, waving a dataslate casually. "We have reports of a large-scale assault in nearby system, some backwater called Vangor. We're probably a couple of weeks away, unless the same warp currents that helped Battlefleet Gothic arrive proves equally as useful."

+YES… BOTH GOTHIC AND THE TYRANIDS ARRIVED UNUSUALLY FAST…+

"We have the Despoiler to thank for that," Thorne growled. "Galdron's Pride was destroyed by the Planet Killer a few days ago. The shockwaves moving out through the Warp generated currents that aided both forces in moving towards us."

+…FRAG, AS THE SOLDIERS WOULD SAY+ Organti said, somehow sounding flatter then normal.

--

Unit 01 groaned it's way into the maintenance pen, the normally flexible armour over the joints welded almost solid. It cautiously leaned into it's cradle, and relaxed as the clamps locked onto the still-warm metal.

Shinji winced as the Entry Plug disengaged, and rose out of the Evangelion into the cradle, his flesh tingling where the movement placed pressure on the plugsuit.

As the hatch pulled open, he carefully eased his way out, before slowly and carefully walking over towards the back, where Organti was waiting silently.

"Playing the hero again, eh Baka?" Asuka asked walking up beside him, the joking sound of her voice neutralising what would have once been a stinging barb, as she slapped him on the back.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah!" Shinji gasped, flinching away from Asuka's hand.

"Sorry, sorry!" she said quickly, stepping back.

"It's… it's not your fault," Shinji gasped, wincing. "I just feel like I have a virtually full-body sunburn."

"…anything I can do," Asuka asked, wincing in sympathy.

"Unfortunately, it's more sympathetic pain," Shinji replied, shrugging in reflex before wincing again. "It's not as bad as the Thunder Cannon was a few weeks ago, so hopefully it'll fade more quickly."

+IT WOULD BE NICE, ONCE IN A WHILE+ Organti said as they reached him, +TO GET THE OMNISSIAH'S CREATIONS BACK IN ONE, REASONABLY WELL WORKING PIECE+

"We weren't the ones to call down an orbital bombardment," Asuka replied, her eyes narrowing in annoyance.

+MY WORDS WERE NOT MEANT AS A CRITICISM+ Organti replied, shaking his head. +IT WAS MY IDEA TO CALL DOWN THE BOMBARDMENT, BUT THERE WAS AN…INCIDENT BEFORE WE COULD CALL TO WARN YOU+

"Was it… bad?" Shinji asked, hesitantly.

+IT WAS… SERIOUS+ came Organti's toneless reply. +THE MATTER WAS SOLVED THOUGH. I TRUST YOU ARE RELATIVELY UNDAMAGED?+

"I'm fine," Asuka replied, before glancing at Shinji. "The Baka here's a bit sore though."

"It's nothing serious," Shinji added at Organti's glance, "I'll stop in with the medicae, but there probably won't be anything they can do about it."

+SYMPATHETIC PAIN IS NEVER PLEASANT+ Organti agreed, managing to sound sympathetic despite the limits of his vox unit. +STILL, THERE IS A VANISHINGLY LOW PROBABILITY OF IT BEING PERMANENT. ANYWAY, WE'LL BE DISASSEMBALING THIS FACILITY AS SOON AS WE ARE SURE THE EVANGELIONS ARE STABLE AND CAN BE TRANSPORTED INTO THE SHIP. SO YOU MAY AS WELL HEAD BACK TO THE _WARRIOR'S CHARIOT_. WITH A SUITABLE ESCORT, OF COURSE+

Organti gestured towards the wall, where Shinji and Asuka spotted the amassed force of a full three squads of Mechanicus Tech Guard stood waiting. A hatch opened, and a fourth squad strode forward to join them.

"Nice going Baka," Asuka muttered as Organti escorted them over to the soldiers. "Now they won't let us go _anywhere_ without an army to watch over us."

--

The last unit rolled up the cargo ramp, which slowly shifted shut in its wake. Vox messages, consisting of statements and prayers of thanks crisscrossed with those of orders and requests.

Finally, pipes and hoses disengaged, mooring ropes were thrown off and the immense structure began to vibrate, filling the air with a dull, throbbing hum. The ship shuddered and then, in complete disregard for the laws of gravity, began to float up into the air with ever increasing speed.

As it reached the lower atmosphere, the plasma drives ignited with flash of heat. The ship tore spaceward like a stung grox, tearing through the ozone layer in a fait roar.

The transport slowed, shifting position to join the ponderous bulk of Battlefleet Gothic as it broke for deep space.

To be concluded…

--

**Ornithopter;** A transport aircraft, based on the same principles as a helicopter. Military models usually mount a twin-linked heavy weapon mount.

**I.I. Handbook;** 'The Imperial Infantryman's Handbook.' A small book provided to all Imperial soldiers detailing basics on weapon care, threat identification, tactics, triage and common prayers. Allowing this book to fall into enemy hands is grounds for execution, followed by a dishonourable discharge.


	13. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"You know," Shinji murmured, watching through the window as Loroncis Prime shrunk into the distance, "we were lucky. If it had been the local trading season with hundreds of transports about…"

"Yes," Thorne agreed. "They would have gotten in the way of our navel operations, and the loss of life would have been much worse. We were fortunate that the last of them left four weeks ago."

There was a short, shocked pause.

"What?" Asuka asked slowly.

"The trading season was a month ago," Thorne replied matter-of-factly.

"But…" Shinji stammered, "with the Genestealer cult so established…"

"Oh, yes," Thorne nodded. "It's very likely that every one of those ships was infested with Genestealers. They're probably scattered all across the sector by now."

"But…that means…"

"Our mission wasn't to safeguard the sector. It was ensure that this system remained intact so that the food supplies for the fleet and the sector remain intact, supporting our fight against the archenemy and easing the eventual re-conquest of the sector. According to our Intel, there isn't another Hive fleet for hundreds of light years."

"But the people…"

"Not our concern. If we don't stop Abaddon, then it won't matter if every human in the sector is infested, we'll all be dead or enslaved anyway. If it comes down to the paltry few million here, and the untold trillions in the galaxy, then the choice is hard, but simple." Thorne sighed, suddenly looking much older. "That's why I was trained. Why the Inquisition was formed. To make those choices."


	14. Omake

**Omake**

_Several hours earlier_

Thorne blinked as a super-heavy transport rolled towards the ship, the immense head of a Tyranid Bio-titan securely strapped to it and several servitors crawling over it. Nearby a massive, roughly shield-shaped slab of metal-reinforced wood rested, waiting for it.

"Organti…" he said slowly, turning to the cyborg priest nearby.

+YES, MY LORD?+ the Magi replied, turning from a binary discussion with two of his colleagues.

Thorne simply gestured over his shoulder at the strange convoy.

+AH, PILOT SOHRYU MADE A REQUEST WITH REGARDS TO THE FIRST BIO-TITAN SHE KILLED ON THIS PLANET. I SAW NO REASON TO REFUSE HER+

"Yes, she asked me about it too, but… you _agreed_!?"


End file.
